The Miserable Ones
by Sand-wolf579
Summary: Basically just a Flash retelling of the story Les Misérables.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: For anybody familiar with the story** _ **Les Miserables**_ **, well, this is basically that, but different. It is very heavily inspired by that story, but I will be trying hard to follow not just that show, but this one as well. There will be some changes, to both stories, but I hope you'll bare with me for this.**

 **Also, as I was writing this first chapter I realized just how many inaccuracies there are (not to the shows, but to real life). So please, don't question the strangeness of this world I'm apparently writing in, just go with it.**

* * *

Three years.

That was how much time Henry Allen had lost from his life. Three long, hard years in prison.

It didn't sound like that much time, but to Henry, it had felt like much longer. Especially considering he had only been arrested for stealing some food. He hadn't threatened anybody, nobody had gotten hurt. All he had wanted was something to feed to his hungry wife and child.

His family had been all but starving. Five years before he had been arrested Henry had been the prime suspect in a murder investigation. He hadn't killed the man, but, of course, nobody believed him. The only reason he hadn't been sentenced to prison because of the murder was because of lack of evidence. And yet since then he was still treated as a criminal.

In those years Henry had a difficult time holding up a job for more than possibly a few months at a time. Many people didn't hire him, because they didn't trust that he was innocent. The few people that did give him a job only did so because they hadn't known who he was and what he had been accused of. Eventually though they did find out, and they fired him as soon as they did.

It was only thanks to Nora that they had made it for so long. With Henry unable to find work Nora became the breadwinner of the family. It wasn't a favorable situation, but things worked out well for a while.

And then Barry was born.

Both Nora and Henry had been overjoyed to finally have a child, though both were also concerned because their living situation was just not one suitable for raising a child in, and things only got worse from there.

Nora had to quit her job because she couldn't juggle taking care of Barry with her long work hours. With Nora no longer earning money Henry had to try even harder to earn just the smallest amount of money. It was tough not being able to be around his wife and kid as much as he wanted to, but Henry bore through it, because they didn't really have a choice.

By this time Henry and Nora had been speaking about moving far away, possibly to the coast. Someplace where nobody knew who Henry was. He would be able to get some decent work, possibly finally put that medical degree that he had worked so hard to get to good use. They would be able to start over.

As much as they wanted that chance, it just wasn't possible. Packing up and moving their lives was something that would take money, and that was just something that they didn't have much of at the moment. Henry was able to make enough for them to scrape by, but that was it.

Money and food were always scarce, but it was at least manageable most of the time. Other times though, not so much. Henry would always have his bad days where he just wasn't able to get as much as he needed to support his family. Occasionally he would have a number of successive bad days, which were always difficult and stressful.

And then there were the rare bad periods that lasted even longer than that.

Henry had been going through one such period for three full weeks, and he couldn't stand seeing his family suffer because of it. His wife was scared, his son was hungry, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Completely desperate Henry had resorted to doing the one thing he had promised himself, and Nora, that he would never do.

He stole.

It was a stupid decision, one that Henry had regretted ever since. Even if he hadn't been arrested for it he still would have felt guilty. But he had been arrested, and because of that one stupid decision Henry was sentenced to five years in prison, with a chance at parole halfway through his sentence.

And now here he was, three years later, finally out of prison and ready to move on with his life. Henry's not dumb though, he knows that things won't be easier. They'll probably be even harder than they had been back when everyone had just _thought_ that he was a criminal, but still, anything's better than being in prison. At least out in the world he'll have his wife by his side again.

Greatly anticipating being able to see her again, to _hold_ her again, Henry walked out of the prison, his heart feeling lighter than it had in a long time. There was a cop waiting for him outside, whether to escort him or intimidate him, Henry had no idea. He had expected the cop, but he would never have thought that they would have sent a detective.

"Joe, what are you doing here?" Henry asked as he walked up to the man that he once had called a friend. Over the years though that friendship had faded and practically disappeared when Joe had arrested him. Still, Henry was civil towards him because Joe West, while he made it perfectly clear that he saw Henry as a criminal, he still had occasionally visited Henry to tell him how his family was doing, because Nora wasn't often able to visit him.

Joe looked at Henry and, as usual, he could see the hard judgemental look in the detective's eyes, the same look that he gave to all criminals he had to associate with. But there was something else in Joe's eyes too. More hesitant, sad almost. It looked like he felt sorry about something.

"What happened?" Henry asked, his eyes narrow in concern. Something must have happened, because detective Joe West never looked at criminals with something like pity or compassion, and he most certainly never felt sorry for them. For their families, sure, all the time. But not criminals.

Joe sighed and shook his head. "There's something you should know." Instead of saying anything more though Joe just got into his car and Henry, taking the hint, follows. He wants to question Joe more, figure out just what he needed to know and where they were going. Henry doesn't ask any further though, because he knows that Joe is not going to answer him until he's good and ready.

They drive in silence for a good while before Joe finally pulls over and stops the car. Henry's blood seemed to turn to ice when he saw where they were.

A cemetery.

"What are we doing here?" Henry asked quietly. He remembered the sad, pitying looks that Joe had been sending him and thinks that he understands. He prays that he's wrong. Oh, God, _please_ let him be wrong.

"It happened a few months ago." Joe said slowly, avoiding Henry's eyes. "We got a call about a disturbance, and by the time we got there…" Joe shook his head. "She was already gone."

"N-nora?" Henry felt as if his world was collapsing around him. It's difficult to breath and time seemed to freeze for a while as Henry tried to process the thought that his wife...that she…

Henry takes in a shuddering breath and tries to put aside the pain. He couldn't grieve for her, not yet. He had something else to worry about. Someone else. "What about Barry?" He asked hesitantly, terrified for the news that he might hear.

"Your son's fine." Joe assured him and Henry breathed a sigh of relief, eternally grateful for that.

"Where is he?" Henry asked. He wanted to see his son. No, he _needed_ to see his son. His boy.

"I'm sorry, Allen, but I can't give that information to you." Joe said, and while he sounded sincere in his apology, his voice was still firm.

"What?" Henry looked at Joe in disbelief, that cold, icy feeling running through his veins again. "Why not?" Despite asking why, Henry didn't really care to hear any excuses. "My son needs his father!" Henry said hotly, his voice raising.

"What he needs is to live in a stable home with good people." Joe said, matching his tone. "Neither of which is something you can give to him." The two of them glare at each other. Henry felt absolutely furious, even as his mind tells him that Joe was right. He couldn't provide Barry with those things, not really. Or, at least, not with the stability.

As much as Henry was willing to admit that maybe he wasn't prepared to take care of his son again, especially now that he was a single father, he was _not_ willing to just sit down and _let_ these people tell him that he couldn't see his son. Barry was _his,_ and nobody was going to take that from him.

"I will get my son back." Henry said lowly. He turned and began slowly making his way into the cemetery, to pay his final respects to his wife.

"Don't do anything stupid, Allen." Joe warned. "We will be watching you." Henry stopped in his tracks. He turned to address the detective.

"So business as usual, right?" Henry said darkly before continuing on his way. Of course the cops would be watching him. They had been keeping a ridiculously close eye on him for the past eight years, so why would that change now?

Not knowing precisely where to go Henry wandered around around the cemetery, looking at every grave that he passed. Finally he came across a tombstone that made him stop. Even though he had been expecting this, Henry still felt a numbing chill come over home when he read the name displayed on the tombstone.

 **Nora Jean Allen.**

A tear fell from Henry's eye and he fell to his knees, overcome by the emotion and overwhelming feeling of helplessness when the gravity of his situation finally seemed to hit him. Nora, his wife, his best friend, was dead. His son was gone, and he had no way of knowing where to find him.

He was well and truly alone. He had no friends to turn to, no family to love. Nobody.

Not for the first time Henry realized just how dark, cruel and lonely the world could be. The difference between this time though and all of those other times was he had nobody to turn to. Nobody to give him hope for a brighter future.

All he had was everlasting darkness.

* * *

 **A/N: Not bad for a chapter that's mostly meant to be exposition. I hope I did an alright job writing Henry. I wasn't too sure, because he's probably the one character from Flash that I'm least familiar with. But I had to have him be the lead, because he's a perfect Jean Valjean.**

 **Honestly though, the character that I'm most worried about portraying well is actually Joe. The character that I'm basing him off of from Les Mis...well, hopefully I do okay with portraying** _ **both**_ **of these guys well.**

 **Later on in the story, when more characters are involved, it'll probably be really obvious really quickly which characters are my favorite. My goal though is that by reading this you won't be able to tell which characters I simply don't like. Here's hoping.**


	2. Chapter 2

Henry fell into a state of depression after learning of his wife's death. In a sense, he felt like he had died with her. He was no longer living, simply existing. Henry went through the motions most every day. He barely felt anything at all, just numb. He barely even cared that he was even more hated by the people of the city than before.

On most days the only reason that Henry got up in the morning was because of Barry. He had to keep going, if only just to find his son. The only problem was Henry had no way of knowing where to even begin looking for his son. He had a deep, unexplainable feeling that Barry wasn't in this city, and Henry wanted nothing more than to just leave and find him. It wasn't as if there was anything keeping him in this place.

Unfortunately, he couldn't leave. Henry had already spoken with his parole officer about moving someplace different, even just to the next state over, but his request had been denied. The parole officer hadn't even given him a good reason as to why he couldn't leave.

Even if he could get the permission required, Henry would still be pretty much start. Financially he was even worse off than before he had been arrested. It was a struggle every day just to survive, let alone get the resources that he would need to just leave and start again.

Henry was stuck where he was. Without a job, a family, or even a home to call his own. The home that he and Nora had shared had been repossessed after Nora had died. So, on top of everything else that was going wrong with his life, he was homeless now as well. Henry had definitely drawn the short straw in life.

Day after day, week after week Henry went through life barely noticing everything that happened around him,and nobody really took much interest in him either. Other than the occasional glare of disgust or mistrust, he was left alone.

Until today.

"Hey, are you okay?" Henry blinked and looked up from where he was sitting to see a young man smiling kindly at him, a look of compassion in his eyes that he hadn't seen in awhile.

"What do you want?" Henry growled coldly. He hadn't used to be so mean spirited to others, but eight years of people treating him horribly had changed him. Henry was full of mistrust in humanity, so excuse him for having some doubt towards a 'friendly' stranger.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay." The stranger said earnestly. He glanced at the seat next to Henry who shrugged and scooted over, giving an invitation. The young man smiled and sat next to him. "I don't usually see many people out in this kind of weather." Henry frowned and looked up at the sky. It had been raining pretty hard all day, so he was soaked.

"What about you?" Henry countered. He had gotten used to being exposed to the elements, but in weather like this it was uncommon for him to see anybody else around. Especially not at this time of day, when night was beginning to fall.

"I was just heading home now." The stranger cast a meaningful look to Henry. "Don't you think you should do the same?"

"I don't have a home." Henry said bluntly. The kid's eyes widened in shock and sadness, which somewhat amused Henry. He had thought that it had been blatantly obvious that he was homeless, and yet this guy seemed so surprised by it.

"Really? That must be awful." The young man's eyes grew sad. There was no pity in his voice though, which Henry appreciated. He didn't want anybody looking down on him. The young man's eyes brightened slightly and he looked at Henry kindly. "Do you want to stay at my place for the night?"

Henry's eyes widened and he looked at the kid as if he was crazy, which he was beginning to suspect was the case. Nobody just invited strangers to spend the night at their house. Didn't this guy realize how potentially dangerous the offer was?

"Come on. Nobody should be out in a storm like this, and it's only going to get better before it gets worse." The young man got to his feet. "I have plenty of room at my place. You could get warm bed, a hot meal, and be on your way in the morning if you want."

It was beginning to sound like a pretty good deal to Henry, to have a safe place to spend the night. Yes, there was no guarantee that this young man's home was safe at all, but Henry figured that this was a risk he was willing to take.

Besides, what did he have to lose anymore?

"Alright." Henry relented and stood up. The young man grinned brightly.

"Great." He said, unnaturally happily. He held out his hand. "My name's Ray Palmer, by the way."

Henry grasped Ray's hand. "Henry." He returned. Ray led the way and Henry began to wonder just what he had gotten himself into when they got to the nice part of town, where the rich and entitled lived. Did Ray honestly live up here? And if he did, then what was he associating with Henry for?

Just how well off was Ray Palmer.

Apparently extremely well off, if the fact that he lived in a penthouse was anything to go by.

"You weren't kidding when you said you had a lot of space." Henry stared in awe around the large penthouse. There really was a lot of space, but other than the size, and the fact that Henry was already aware that it was a penthouse, he would have guessed that it was just a regular house.

Apparently Ray Palmer was even more well off than Henry had originally thought. And yet the furnishing of his home showed otherwise. Except for all of the probably expensive science tools and technology, as well as a couple of different items that seemed out of place with everything else, Ray's possessions were surprisingly normal and, while not exactly cheap, certainly not expensive.

"Do you always do this type of thing?" Henry asked.

"What, you mean inviting strangers into my home?" Ray let out a bit of a laugh at that. "Not exactly, no. I mean, I always try to find ways to help those less fortunate than I am, so when I saw you out there I just...you know, it just seemed like the right thing to do."

"Huh, you're an interesting man, Mr. Palmer." Henry commented.

"Please, just call me Ray." The younger man smiled kindly. "Come on. You look hungry, and I'm sure we can find something to make for dinner."

Though still wary and somewhat confused Henry followed Ray into the kitchen, because his hunger won out over his caution. The meal that Ray made wasn't anything fancy or special, but Henry honestly thought that he hadn't tasted anything better in his life. He hadn't realized just how hungry he had been until he began eating.

As Henry ate Ray filled the silence and practically shared with him his life story. Not that Henry minded, of course. He was actually glad for the friendly chat, and he was actually interested by what Ray was willing to share with him.

Henry learned a lot about Ray, such as how he was apparently a billionaire scientist, which explained all the expensive science equipment around. Ray's family was also decently well off, but he didn't get along with them very well. Their relationship was just well enough that Ray had inherited many family heirlooms that, while he didn't care much for them, couldn't exactly bring himself to get rid of. That explained the nice stuff that Henry had thought out of place.

Henry could completely understand Ray's desire to keep the family heirlooms and gifts. After all, family was important, no matter what. Henry himself had a family heirloom that had been passed down from generation to generation. It was a simple bronze ring with a lightning bolt insignia on it. Henry's father had given it to him when he was eighteen, and then he had given it to Nora after their marriage.

With Nora's passing though, Henry had no way of knowing where the ring was, or if he would ever see it again. Henry tried not to think about it though. He didn't want to think about what he had lost. Not now. Tonight Henry just wanted to be away from his world, from his problems.

If just for this one night Henry could feel like a human again, and not just the shell of the man that he once was, he would appreciate it even more than the wam food and shelter that Ray was giving him for the night.

The two men talked into the night. At first Henry had been uncomfortable with talking about himself to his host, but the more that Ray shared the more comfortable with the man Henry grew. Before long he too found himself talking about his life. Henry didn't share details or specifics, like how he had gone to prison and been accused of murder. Still though, he told Ray about his wife, his son, and his fears. Ray was completely understanding.

Through the next few hours Ray and Henry grew to know each other well. Much sooner than Henry would have liked the hour had grown late and Ray had declared that he was heading off to bed. Ray told him to feel free to stay up for as long as he wanted, but Henry decided that he too should probably get some sleep.

Ray showed Henry where the guest bedroom was, and he all but collapsed on the bed. Henry could barely remember the last time he had slept on a real, comfortable bed, and he had forgotten how good it felt. Feeling completely exhausted Henry suspected that he would fall asleep within minutes.

More than an hour later and Henry was still wide awake.

Without Ray around to distract him Henry's thoughts came back in full force, and they were dark thoughts indeed. Ray Palmer had invited him into his home, which just made Henry long to get his own home back. Not the house, but his family. He will never see Nora again, and he had accepted that.

He hadn't given up on his son though.

Barry was still out there, and Henry was determined now more than ever to find him. The problem was he couldn't find Barry until he could leave the city, and he couldn't do that without money. Henry had no way of getting money, unless he...unless he…

Henry sat up a sick feeling churning in his gut, but also fierce determination. He hated what he was about to do, hated it with all of his being, but he had to do it. He had sworn that he would be reunited with his son.

No matter what it takes.

* * *

Ray had only been asleep for maybe an hour or two before he was woken rudely by sharp knocking at his door. In a half-asleep state Ray dragged himself out of bed, grumbling about who would possibly be bothering him at this out. Ray opened his front door, scowling, but his annoyance quickly turned to confusion when he saw two cops outside his door. His guest, Henry Allen was standing between them, and refused to look him in the eyes.

In his tired state it took Ray longer than it should have to realize what must have happened.

"Mr. Palmer, we apologize for bothering you so late." One of the officer's said sincerely. "But we caught this man who seemed to have some items that didn't belong to him." The officer handed Ray a bag which was, indeed, full of some of his more expensive belongs.

A cold, sad feeling came over Ray. Not because he was robbed from. Honestly, Ray couldn't care less about that. He could easily go out and buy new belongings. What struck Ray though was that this man, his guest, had felt so desperate that he hadn't seen any other way besides stealing.

That's what saddened Ray.

Yes, Henry Allen had stolen from him, and if Ray was being honest with himself it hurt, that a man would betray his trust like that. Beyond that feeling of betrayal though was one of sympathy. Henry Allen was not a bad man, Ray knew that much. He had just run into times of bad luck, and needed some help to get back on his feet.

"That's not all." The other officer growled. "When we caught him this lowlife had the nerve to say that you had given all this stuff to him-"

"I did." Ray said without hesitation. The cops looked at him in shock and Henry Allen lifted his gaze, his eyes full of even more surprise than the officers. Ray smiled kindly at him. "You left so quickly though, that you forgot the most important things." Ray went into the dining room and came back seconds later, holding two silver candlesticks in his hands. Ray held them, and the stolen items, out to Henry.

"I'm surprised you left the best behind." Ray said, his voice filled with just as much kindness as ever. Henry just stared at the items in shock. Ray turned back to the officers. "This man didn't steal from me, so I believe you can let him go now." The officers, partily confused but mostly embarrassed, apologized for waking him and wasting his time. Ray waved off their apologies. After all, they had just been doing their jobs.

Once the officers had left Ray turned back to Henry who was looking at him in disbelief, with guilt and doubt lying just beneath the surface of his eyes.

"Palmer, I-" Henry began.

"It's just Ray." The younger man interrupted. He smiled gently. "Please, keep what you took, and the candles. You need them more than I do."

"What? I-" Henry's eyes widened and he began to protest, but Ray stopped him.

"Those candles mean a lot to me." Ray said softly. "I first got them as a wedding gift for my Anna, but she died before I could have the chance to give them to her. They've just been sitting on my table ever since, gathering dust. She wouldn't have wanted that. Anna believed that everything, and everybody, should have a purpose. I don't use these candles for what they were made for, and I believe that you will make more use of them than I ever will. So please, take them."

Henry frowned, a conflicted look on his face. Still, to Ray's relief, he wordlessly accepted the gifts. Henry took a step back, and then another. Ray could tell that Henry was just seconds away from bolting away from there, and that they would probably never see each other again. Still, Ray felt obligated to say one more thing before this stranger left his life for good.

"Henry, can you promise me something?" Ray asked, which caused Henry to freeze in his tracks.

"Of course." Henry said quickly and sincerely.

"Find your son, and use what I gave you to turn your life around." Ray said.

Henry looked stricken and for a second Ray believed that he would just leave without promising any such thing. Then a determined and appreciative look came to his eyes. "I will.' He swore before running off like Ray knew he would. Ray grinned sadly to himself and closed the door. He returned to his bedroom and, as he was falling asleep, hoped that this lost man, his new friend, would be able to find his way.

* * *

Henry ran until he felt like he couldn't any more, and then he just kept on going. He didn't know what he was running from, whether it be the authorities, Ray Palmer, or his own guilt. All Henry knew was that he had to get away.

Finally he could go no further and Henry stopped to catch his breath. The tears that had been gathering in his eyes since Ray had shown mercy to him finally began to fall. In frustration Henry shouted and threw the bag of Ray's belongings aside in disgust. Henry fell to his knees and for a bit he just sobbed as he asked himself one question;

Why?

Why had he resorted to stealing again? Hadn't he promised himself that he would never stoop so low again? Had he really fallen so far and his hatred become so strong that he had betrayed the one person to show him even a shred of kindness?

Why had Ray Palmer saved him like this?

Henry had become nothing but a thief. He had become the very person that he others had hated him for being in the first place. A lowly criminal, nothing more.

And yet Ray had helped him. Henry had stolen from him, and not only had Ray stopped the authorities from taking him, but he had also given Henry more than what he had taken. Ray had shown him compassion, even when Henry had stabbed him in the back when given the chance.

What kind of man would do something like that?

Henry wanted nothing more than to just throw away what he had stolen, what had been given to him. He wanted to move past this night and forget that it had never happened at all. He wanted to forget...but he couldn't.

Ray had asked for only one thing in return for all he had done. The least that Henry could do was respect his wish, even if it killed him inside to do so.

Henry reached out and carefully picked up the silver candlesticks that he had so hastily thrown aside. Ray had told him to use what he had been given to better himself, and that was what Henry was going to do. Getting to his feet Henry picked up the bag of stolen, -no, given- goods and walked on his way, towards the outskirts of the city.

He had to find Barry. Henry Allen couldn't leave the city without breaking parole. The thing was, Henry Allen had died with his wife. He was a different man now, and it was about time he made a new start.

It was time for a new story to begin.

 **A/N: That took longer than I thought it would to write, but this chapter was hard. I mean, this chapter, this part of the story, is arguably the most important part. I don't feel like I did it justice, but I certainly tried my best. Hopefully I captured the emotion, and if I didn't, well don't worry, there are plenty of emotional moments left to go in the stoy. Maybe I'll have better luck with one of them.**

 **I'm really happy with my decision to use Ray for the part that I gave him. I was having an unbelievably hard time trying to figure out who should be The Bishop. I thought about it for weeks, no joke, until one day at dinner it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Ray Palmer is absolutely perfect. I just hope I wrote him fine.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here's another chapter. Once again, it's not very long. The thing is, I don't know much about Henry or what his character is like, since we barely get to see him in the show, so even though he is one of the lead characters of this story, he will be the one that I will be least detailed about. Next chapter though, I promise, I should have more. Either that or all of the chapters in the story will be the sames lengths as these last couple of ones, which, while still decent, is nowhere near as long as I would prefer.**

 **Anyways, you will notice in this chapter I will mention a 'Jay Garrick'. The thing is, I specifically mean the original Jay Garrick, meaning The Flash on earth three who was captured and had his name stolen by Zoom.**

* * *

The first few days after leaving town had been very nerve-racking for Henry. He knew that he would be in so much trouble if he was caught. He had broken his parole, which he knew was a risky and, admittedly dangerous, thing to do, but necessary.

Henry Allen's life had fallen to pieces, with no foreseeable way for things to get better. He had honestly begun to believe that nothing would ever get better. That happiness in life just didn't exist, for anybody. Just varying degrees of contentedness and people settling for what little joy they could get.

Ray Palmer, and the precious gift he had given to Henry, had changed his views, and his life.

Ray hadn't just given him a bag full of valuables, he had given him a new chance at life, and Henry had taken it. Henry had sold most of the belongings and used some of the money to leave the city, change his name, his appearance, and just became a new man.

The first days, and months, actually, of his new life were filled with stress and anxiety as Henry worried that he would get caught. As the time passed though, with not even a word of anybody coming after him, Henry began to relax. It seemed as though he was in the clear, that nobody would find out who he was here.

He was safe to just life his life.

Once Henry was less paranoid and stopped believing that every police officer who so much as glanced his way was going to arrest him and throw him in prison again, he began to actually live the life he had been given.

Henry hadn't forgotten his promise to Ray, to use the money to turn his life around, and he had every intention of doing just that. Henry didn't just want to live a carefree life, he wanted to do some good in the world. Henry had always had a desire to help people, which was what had driven him to get his medical degree in the first place. And now, at long last, he was going to put his knowledge to good use.

Henry used his remaining money to open up a medical clinic. The place was small, and Henry had known from the start that he wouldn't be paid much by doing this, but he was fine with that. He hadn't become a doctor because he wanted to get rich. If that was what he had wanted, then he would have gotten a job at a real hospital.

Henry just wanted to help those who were in unfortunate situations, and owning a small clinic on the bad side of town gave him the chance to do just that. Most all of the patients he ever got were poor people who often couldn't afford to pay him much, or anything. He didn't mind though. He was more than happy to help the sick and abused, especially when more often than not those people had nowhere else to go for help.

Henry was always willing to do what he could to help everybody. He never turned away a patient, no matter their age or the seriousness of their 'affliction'. There had been numerous times where Henry's patient had simply been a small child, sometimes even as young as three years of age, and all that was wrong with them was a painful splinter or a bloody nose.

Henry still helped the children, and anybody else with fake infirmities, because he knew that what they were seeking wasn't really a doctor, it was a friend. Somebody who actually bothered to care about how they were doing. Many people that Henry had run into on this side of the town felt like they were truly alone in the world. Henry was glad to take on the responsibility of showing them that they weren't.

Of course, not all the children that came to him were simply lonely and wanted attention. Henry desperately wished that that was the case. The reality was that Henry saw many kids walk through his doors who needed real medical attention. He did what he could to help all of them, though there had been times when the best he could do was suggest that they go to a real hospital, because their injury was too serious.

Many of the kids were stubborn and didn't trust adults, so they didn't even come to him when they had a problem until it was very serious, at which point Henry alone wasn't always able to help them. He did what he could though, and that was what was important.

What really broke Henry's heart was that he actually had patients who came to him on a regular basis, even when it was clear they didn't trust him. They only came in because they didn't have any other choice. One such patient was a cold yet kind boy named Leo. The kid wasn't even a teenager yet, but Henry could tell that he had intelligence beyond his years. Henry had grown to know Leo well. Of course, that happens when somebody was as accident prone as Leo was.

...accident prone, yeah right. As if Henry believed that for a second. Leo was the least clumsy kid Henry had ever seen. Careful kids like him didn't 'accidentally' get cracked ribs, broken wrists, black eyes, and even the occasional shallow stab wound. Leo's injuries were such a regular occurrence that Henry saw him once or twice a week.

Occasionally when Leo came in it wasn't for himself. He would sometimes bring other kids with him who had injuries that needed to be addressed. These injuries were usually something that Henry could actually do something to help, such as a favor or even third-degree burns.

Twice though Leo had brought in a friend of his, and there had been nothing that Henry could do for them. He was a doctor, but he wasn't a miracle worker. He couldn't wave his hands and magically make it so that a child wasn't color blind or deaf anymore. Henry desperately wished that he could do so, but he couldn't. He still felt terrible whenever he remembered the heartbroken looks on Leo's friend's faces.

Henry hated it when he had to be the bearer of bad news. Especially when he had to be the bearer of the _worst_ news, which was something that, as a doctor, he had had to do somewhat regularly. The thing was, no matter how hard he tried, Henry couldn't save everybody.

But he could certainly try.

As he began getting more patients Henry hired some additional help, because with more people to help him he would have more time to help others. People regularly volunteered to help out at the clinic, and they usually handled the small children and the others who wanted company, leaving Henry to deal with the larger, more serious cases.

One day, about two years after he had opened the clinic one of his young workers and a regular volunteer came in later than they usually did, and the reason why was immediately obvious. They were carrying between them a young woman with dark skin and short hair who was obviously ill.

Henry grew serious at once. "Bring her into the back." He ordered the two people that were supporting the woman. There was a bite to his voice that wasn't usually there, but neither the worker nor the volunteer seemed bothered by it. They were familiar with how he was like when the situation was serious.

And even though she had only just been brought in and Henry didn't know for sure what was wrong with her yet, just by looking at the woman he could tell that it was something serious.

The worker and the volunteer gently laid the young woman in a bed in one of the back rooms. They then left, giving Henry some privacy to check up on her. The good news was that she was conscious, which would make finding a diagnosis much simpler.

Henry smiled kindly to try to get the woman to relax more. "Can you tell me what your name is?" he started with a simple question.

"F-Francine." The woman said quietly as she took in a shuddering breath, her eyes glazed over slightly.

"Alright, Francine, now if you're willing I would like to do some tests to find out what is bothering you." Henry began, but the woman shook her head.

"I already know what's wrong." Francine said with conviction. "I've visited doctors before, and they all told me that I have MacGregor's Syndrome."

Henry froze when he heard that. As a doctor himself he had of course heard of MacGregor's Syndrome before, and it definitely wasn't good. It was a terminal disease, which meant that Francine was going to die, and she didn't have much time left.

"Have you had a history of drug usage?" Henry asked, just to be sure that what she had really was MacGregor's Syndrome. Honestly though, he had little doubts that it was. She wouldn't have said that she had it if she didn't. And if multiple doctors had diagnosed her with it, than Henry couldn't put it off as just a bad diagnosis.

Francine snorted slightly at that question. "I've had nothing but problems because of drugs for years now."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Henry said sincerely. He hated hearing about the issues that people got into because of drugs. It caused money problems, mental problems, health problems. Henry knew for a fact that drugs had medicinal purposes when used properly. Unfortunately, it seemed that more and more people were abusing the drugs, using them, and overusing them, for all of the wrong reasons.

"I can't cure what you have." Henry apologized, before you could say more Francine weakley took his hand.

"I know." She admitted. "I don't expect to live from this. I just…" Tears gathered in Francine's eyes and she sobbed slightly. "I'm not ready to go yet. I just need a little longer. I can't leave her like this."

"Leave who?" Henry asked. Was she talking about a family member? A friend? A pet?

"My daughter, Iris." Francine answered, a small heartbreaking smile came to her face when she thought about her daughter. "She's only six years old. I can't leave her alone like this." Francine was getting herself worked up, which was doing nothing to improve her health. The more distressed she got the weaker she seemed to became.

"Where is Iris?" Henry asked. If seeing her daughter could get Francine to calm down and be at peace, Henry was more than happy to get the small girl. Besides, by looking at Francine Henry could tell that she didn't have the best of living conditions, which meant that little Iris probably wasn't of the best of health either. "Is she at your home right now?"

Francine shook her head. "I haven't been able to take care of her. I've had to pay somebody else to take care of her for me."

Henry didn't have a good feeling about this. "Is this person a friend of yours."

Francine looked away, ashamed. "Not exactly. He's...he's my drug dealer."

"...What?" Henry thought for sure that he must have misheard her or something. Francine couldn't possibly think that that had been a good idea. "Why would you let somebody like that be anywhere near your daughter?"

"I had no other choice." Francine cried out desperately. "I can't take care of her on my own. And he-he has his own kid."

' _That doesn't mean that he treats his own kid well,'_ Henry thought to himself, but he didn't say it out loud. Francine was worried enough as it was. It wouldn't do any good to criticize her and get her all worked up.

"I will find Iris." Henry promised to Francine. "And I will personally see to it that she has a safe place to call home."

"You-you would do that?" Francine's eyes filled with hope. Henry squeezed her hand in a reassuring way.

"I promise." He swore to her. "You stay here and rest. Let me worry about Iris."

"Thank you." Francine's reply was weak, but still filled with so much gratitude. Henry smiled at her one last time before leaving the room, letting Francine get some rest. It wasn't until Henry returned to the main room of the clinic did he realize that he didn't actually knew which drug dealer Francine had left Iris with.

Henry considered going back and asking Francine directly, but decided against it. The woman needed sleep, and Henry knew that even without asking he would be able to find out easily enough. There weren't actually all that many drug dealers around the city, let alone ones that actually had a kid themselves.

Henry suspected that it wouldn't take long at all for him to find the man that he was looking for. Somewhere in the clinic Henry had a file where he kept information about each of the individual drug dealers and who they supplied for, just in case it would come in handy one day. It looked as if this was the day.

As Henry began looking for the file somebody new entered through the clinic's front door. Henry lifted his eyes to see who it was and instinctively froze when he saw a man that he was all too familiar with. Detective Joe West.

Henry had to force himself not to panic. After all, it was unlikely that Joe was here for him. A few months before Detective West had been transferred to this city, and even though the two of them had crossed paths multiple times, it seemed that Joe didn't know who he was. He had remarked a time or two that he thought that he recognized Henry, but couldn't seem to figure out from where. It seemed that Henry's identity was safe. Still, he was always tense whenever the two of them met.

"Detective, is there something you need?" Henry asked, keeping his voice polite and neutral. He couldn't give Joe any reason to think that he was hiding something.

"Not exactly. I just came here because, well, I owe you an apology." Joe said.

"What? Why?" Henry blinked in shock, because that had not been what he had expected.

"Because I judged you wrongly, and unfairly." Joe said. "You just somehow reminded me of a man that I used to know, a criminal, who skipped out on his parole. For awhile there I even thought that you really were him."

"What changed your mind?" Henry asked. On the outside he was calm, but on the inside he was very near panicking. Joe had actually found out who he was.

"I got word today that they found the man that I mistook you for. Of course, he claims that he's innocent. Even says that his name is 'Jay Garrick'." Joe shook his head. "He can't lie though. It's clear that this man is actually Henry Allen."

Henry flinched slightly at the use of his real name, even though Joe hadn't been referring to him when he had said it. "What's going to happen to this man?" Henry asked unsurely.

"With any luck he'll end up right back in prison." Joe said firmly. Henry clenched his fists and paled slightly. "But I didn't come here to talk about some con, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for mistaking you for on. You're a good person, not a criminal."

"I'm glad to hear you say that." Henry said, he just wished that Joe would realize that it was possible for a person to be good, even if they were a criminal. Sometimes good people just did bad things. "It's always nice talking to you, detective, but I really should be getting back to work."

"Yeah, so should I." Joe said. "You have a good day, doctor.

"You too, detective." Henry said quietly. Joe left, but even with him gone Henry still found himself tense and anxious. Not because he had almost been caught, but because he _hadn't_ been caught.

Joe had known who he was. It would have only been a matter of time before he had acted upon his instincts and learned the truth. Henry would have been arrested again and sent back to prison for who knows how long. Once again, his life would have been ruined.

Except now, once again, Henry was being given the chance to escape from his old life, completely. He didn't just have to run away this time. After all, nobody was going to be chasing after a man who had already been caught. This was his chance and most all of Henry's instincts were screaming at him to take the opportunity before him.

But a part of him, the good part of him who wanted to do whatever it took to help other people, regardless of what happened to him, knew he couldn't take this chance. Not if it meant an innocent man had to suffer for mistakes that had been his.

Henry had made many mistakes in his past, and he wanted to get away from them. He didn't want to face all of the consequences anymore. At the same time he wanted to be a good person. Henry wanted to save those that most people wouldn't glance twice at. For the past few years Henry had been able to do both. That time was gone now.

Henry had to decide now. He could choose to save himself, or choose to spare a stranger. Despite his survival instincts fighting for him to do otherwise, Henry wanted to choose to save the stranger. If things were just as simple as choosing between himself and someone else, he might have easily chosen the other person.

The thing was, not everything was as cut and dry as it seemed to be. If Henry turned himself in he would not be the only to suffer because of it. He hadn't just made a new life for himself, he had created this clinic and given new life to people who otherwise might not have been able to get the help that they had needed.

If he was gone, what would happen to his clinic? To his patients? What would happen to the children like Leo, who wouldn't have anybody if he wasn't around? If anything would happen to him, he would not be the only person to suffer because of it. Henry couldn't let that happen.

But he couldn't let another man be punished for something that he had never done.

Henry had no idea what to do. Despite what Joe believed, the world wasn't as black and white as it seemed. It was much more complicated than that. If he spoke up, he would be condemning all of his patients. If he stayed silent, they would be spared, but this Jay Garrick would not be.

How would Henry be able to forgive himself if he let that man be punished instead of him? How would he even be able to live with himself?

The thing was, if he kept quiet, he couldn't.

Deep down Henry knew what he had to do. He had believed that just because he had changed his name and appearance, and made a new life for himself meant that he wasn't the same person that he had been before. In reality though, he was still Henry Allen, and always had been.

And Henry wasn't the type of person to just stand by and keep quiet when somebody was suffering and there was something he could do to stop it.

Henry couldn't let somebody get arrest instead of him, but he didn't necessarily want to be arrested himself.

It looked like it was time for him to be on the run again.

Henry picked up his phone and, before he could talk himself out of it, called the police station. He left them a tip where he admitted that they had the wrong man. That Jay Garrick wasn't Henry Allen, he was. He told them that he had the papers to prove who he was, and that Detective Joe West knew that this was the truth. He told them what he alias was and where to locate his clinic, and then hung up the phone.

This wasn't a surefire plan,, and Henry knew it. They could very well ignore his tip completely, but there was nothing else he could do. True, Henry could turn himself in, but he had no intention of being arrested. Besides, he had another responsibility.

Turning back to his files about drug dealers Henry quickly found the man he was looking for. He was, after all, the only drug dealer in the area who had a kid that anybody even knew about. Henry gathered up his things, told his employees that he was leaving and not coming back, and hurried away. He didn't want to be on the run again, but he didn't have much of a choice.

First though, Henry had to have a few words with this 'Mr. Snart.'

* * *

 **A/N: Yes, I could have probably figured out how to drag this chapter on and make it a bit longer, but I didn't. The reason? Well, I was so close to finishing the chapter that I wanted to finish it up tonight, and usually I don't mind staying up late, except it seems that a bunch of large bugs have made a nest or something under the couch that I am sitting on, because I keep on seeing them crawl out from under it. The longer I sit here, the more uneasy I feel, because I really don't like bugs. So a rushed ending is what you get. Sorry.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: This chapter ended up being a lot longer than I expected it to be. I knew that it would probably be longer than the others, because I tend to write more when it concerns my favorite character, but I didn't expect there to be this much of a difference.**

* * *

Leonard Snart was not normally the type of person to sleep in. He preferred to wake up early, before anybody else did. Of course he also enjoyed staying up fairly late. He enjoyed feeling like he was the only person in the world, because everybody else was asleep. With Len staying up late and waking up early he only got a handle of hours of sleep every night.

Len was alright with this though. Yes, he felt exhausted all the time, and Len knew that getting so few hours of sleep was not good for anybody, let alone somebody who was technically still a child, like he was. Len hated to think of himself as a kid, because he certainly never felt like one, but at only twelve years of age even he in all his stubbornness had to admit that he was in fact still a kid, and he still had some growing up to do.

Still, Len didn't change his sleeping habits. He acknowledged that they weren't the best, and then did it like that anyways. That was just the type of person that he was. It was his life, so Len believed that he could do what he wanted with it. Sometimes though Len did take things a little too far.

Len always woke up at the same time every morning, but the time he went to bed every night varied on his mood, what was on his mind and whether or not his father was forcing him to help out on a heist or something. Sometimes Len would stay up hours longer than he normally would and more often than not the days where this happened occurred one right after the other.

Len was usually fine for the first couple of days with less sleep before the exhaustion would become too much and he would just conk out. When this happened Len probably could have slept until evening the next day and still been tired, and yet for the past two years he could never sleep any later than noon. He would have liked to, but couldn't because of one simple reason.

"Lenny, wake up already." A young girl's voice whined as small hands shook at his shoulders. Len groaned and rolled over, pulling his blanket over his head. This did not please the little girl one bit. "Get up!" The girl cried out. She climbed onto the bed and, without warning jumped onto Len's stomach, knocking the air right out of him.

Len groaned once again, from pain this time rather from irritation and fatigue. His chest was already sore because he was currently healing from bruised ribs, and having somebody jump on him like that was doing nothing for the pain. Still Len forced himself to not become angry because the little girl didn't know that he was hurt, so it wasn't fair to get mad at her for it.

Len opened his eyes and glared at the small dark skinned girl who was still sitting on his stomach. "What do you want, Iris?"

"I'm hungry." She said simply, as if it should have been obvious. Len rolled his eyes and pushed the six year old off his stomach.

"Then go find yourself some food." Len said indignantly. "You're old enough to do that yourself.

"I don't know what to eat." Iris whined. She started shaking his shoulders again and Len knew that if he didn't get up soon she would just jump onto his stomach again, and he really didn't want that. Thanks to his father Len already had bruised ribs, he didn't need Iris to make them any worse.

"Alright, I'm coming." Len shoved Iris off of his bed, causing her to give a small squeak when she landed on the floor. She glared up at Len, he returned her look with a smirk.

"Jerk." Iris muttered to herself.

"Brat." Len said, though not unkindly. He stood up and held out a hand to help Iris get to her feet. Len still felt tired and wanted nothing more at that moment than to crawl back into his bed and sleep for another few hours, but he didn't. Len was the type of person who couldn't fall back asleep after being woken up, and it would be useless to even try. Besides, Len had things that he had to do that day. He had wasted enough time as it was, he couldn't afford any more.

First things first though, Len had to get Iris some food, partially because she needed it, and partially so she would stop whining to him about being hungry. Iris practically dragged Len downstairs to the kitchen where she sat at the table while he began the daily challenge of trying to find something edible in the house.

The kitchen was almost always practically devoid of food. The only thing that they constantly had in supply was Lewis' alcohol. If that didn't say something about Len's father's character, than nothing did.

Len checked in cupboard after cupboard, hoping that he would find something, _anything_ that was edible. He knew that they were low on food, because they always were, but today was not a good day to run out of it. Lewis and some of his pals were getting together to plan a heist and Len, for whatever reason, was being forced to be present. Lewis had been using Len for heists for years now, so that was no surprise. What Len didn't understand was why his father was wanting him to be there while they planned the heist when previously he had just been satisfied with just briefing him on the way to the actual heist itself.

Len was not happy about his father forcing him to be even more involved in this crime business than he already was. This was a new situation for Len, and he didn't know what his father expected from him. Since Len didn't know what his dad wanted it was all that much easier for him to slip up or do something wrong, and Len knew that he would be punished if he did.

Len didn't know exactly when the meeting was going on, just that it was sometime that day. Len couldn't risk going out to the store to get some food when he didn't know precisely when he had to be here. It would be best if Len just stayed home and didn't even risk being out at the wrong time.

Fortunately after a few minutes of searching Len was able to find some food. It wasn't much, but it was enough to last until tomorrow when Len could spare the time to steal some more food, because it wasn't as if he had the money to actually _buy_ the stuff. Len had weighed the pros and cons of stealing money from his father to buy food, or just straight out stealing the food.

On one hand, if Len stole from a store there was a chance he would get caught by the authorities. On the other hand, if his father caught him stealing money from him...Len didn't even want to think about it. Ultimately Len had decided that he feared his father's wrath more than he did that of the cops, who would likely let him off lightly because he was young.

Len had yet to be caught by the police, even though he had stolen from shops and such on a regular basis for the past two years. He still didn't want to push his chances too much though, which was why Len never actually took much. Just what they needed to get by.

Len was relieved to find at least a little food. Ignoring the grumbling of his own stomach Len made some lunch for Iris, who was less than thrilled with the sorry meal.

"Peanut butter? Again?" Iris frowned and pushed away the plate with the plain sandwich on it. Len sighed and sat down next to her at the table. He pushed the plate back in front of her.

"Come on, Iris, this is all we have." Len reminded her. "If you don't eat this then you don't eat anything." He really wasn't trying to be mean about it, but those were the facts.

"But I'm starving." Iris whined. Her face was scrunched up and Len could tell that she was just seconds away from throwing a full tantrum, and he really couldn't handle that now.

"You're not starving." Len said harshly. "You're just hungry, and you wouldn't be hungry if you stopped being a baby and just ate the stupid sandwich." Len was really fed up with how Iris didn't seem to understand that while they didn't have all that much food they were still considerably lucky. Len knew many people, adults and kids alike, who truly were starving. Some of those children were actually even younger than Iris was, so Len really didn't appreciate Iris' complaints.

Iris, being incredibly stubborn crossed her arms and refused to eat the sandwich. Len wasn't going to force her to eat it though, if she really didn't want to eat it then fine, she just wouldn't be able to eat again until tomorrow. Maybe that would teach her to appreciate what she had.

Iris pouted for a few minutes, but finally her hunger got the best of her and she began to eat the food that she had been so adamant against. Iris only ended up eating half of the sandwich. She put the rest of it back on the plate and looked at Len meaningfully.

"You need some food too, Lenny." Iris said quietly. Len gave her a small smile. He appreciated the gesture, really he did, but Len didn't think he would actually end up eating the sandwich. If Iris really didn't want it then Len knew a number of other people who needed the food more than he did.

Leaving the sandwich on the table and promising Iris that it would get eaten later Len followed the girl into the living room. Len sat down on the couch with his legs spread out on the cushions and grabbed a book. It was one that he had read many times over, but he didn't mind reading it again. It wasn't as if he had much more to do.

Iris was content to just sit on the floor and continue working on a drawing that she must have started earlier that morning. Len found himself getting distracted from his book as he watched the little girl concentrate on just a simple drawing, as if she wanted it to be just right.

"What are you working on?" Len leaned forward to get a better look at the picture. Iris wasn't really an artistic person. She usually prefered to make up stories, all of which had happily ever afters. So seeing Iris draw anything always made Len curious.

Iris grinned and proudly held up her picture for him to see better. It really looked like Iris had put a lot of effort into it. There were four figures in the drawing, a monster of sorts, some flying person (an angel, perhaps?) and two smaller figures. The smallest person in the drawing was obviously a princess, the other one though Len wasn't so sure about. Maybe it was a knight? But then again, it kind of looked like a cross between a human and a monster.

"The princess is being held prisoner by the monster." Iris explained, though she didn't have to because Len could have figured out that much on his own. She pointed at the questionable figure. "This is the monster's son. He's not really a monster though, he's a knight, he just doesn't know it." Ah, so it was a knight _and_ a monster. Well that made sense.

"Is the knight going to save the princess from the monster?" Len asked. Iris frowned as though unsure, which confused Len. It sounded like this drawing had a whole story to go with it, and Iris always made her stories end happily, with the knight saving the princess. Was that not how this one was going to go?

"I don't think so." Iris said finally as she looked at her drawing again. "He wants to, but the knight is trapped too."

"Who will save them?" Len asked, his voice quieter. He was beginning to get an idea of where Iris got her inspiration from.

"Oh, that's the angel." Iris smiled and pointed out the flying figure which was, indeed, an angel. "She's going to save the princess and the knight someday."

It wasn't the happiest of Iris' stories, but it was more personal. The ending was vague, but filled with hope. Len himself wasn't a very optimistic person, but he was happy that Iris could find hope in a situation that didn't seem to have any. There was just one flaw in Iris' story that Len just felt that he had to point out.

"I don't think she can save the knight." Len said. Iris frowned sadly and lowered her drawing.

"Why not?" She asked, reminding Len just how innocent and young she was. Iris didn't understand how the world worked.

"Well, the monster put a curse on the knight." Len said simply. "He can't leave his home."

"That's not the knight's home." Iris stomped her foot. "A home is with people who love you, and the monster doesn't love the knight."

' _No, he doesn't.'_ Len thought to himself. "He still can't leave. The curse won't let him."

"Well then the princess will have to use her magic to break the curse." Iris said stubbornly. Len snorted.

"Since when does the princess know magic?" He asked. Iris pouted.

"Well, she will learn it, and after she does she will come back and save the knight." Iris sounded so sure that that was the way that things were going to happen that Len had to smile at her naivety.

"I'm sure she will." Len said, though that wasn't entirely true. He wasn't sure that she would succeed, but he did know that Iris, sorry, the _princess_ would do her best to save her so called knight.

Satisfied that Len agreed with her version of the story Iris sat back down on the ground and added a couple of last minute details to her drawing. She was only drawing for a few moments though before she froze suddenly.

"Hey, Lenny?" Iris asked quietly. "When will my mommy want me again?"

"She's always wanted you." Len said immediately. "It's just...things are complicated." That was an understatement. Iris didn't understand that her mother couldn't afford to take care of herself, let alone a kid. That's why she had dropped Iris off here. Francine had hoped that Lewis would take care of Iris in exchange for payment.

Not the smartest plan ever, but based on the state Francine had been in the last couple of times Len had seen her, he was willing to forgive her for it.

Len had never considered Francine a particularly healthy person in the first place, and each time he saw her, especially after Iris started living with him and his dead, just proved to him how bad her health was. Francine looked thinner and more tired as time passed, as well as sicker. Francine's condition had been so bad the last time that Len had seen her he had witnessed first hand how bad off she was and that she was unfit to take care of a child. How could she, when she could barely take care of herself?

That had been a couple of months ago, and Len doubted that she was faring much better now than she had been then. If anything Francine was probably doing worse, so much so that Len wondered just how accurate Iris' drawing of an angel really was.

As Len tried to think of a gentle way to explain things to Iris a shout from the basement stopped his thoughts right in their tracks.

"Boy! Get down here!" Len flinched and Iris cowered slightly at the all too familiar sound of Len's father being angry. Len sighed and resigned himself to his fate. He knew that if he didn't get downstairs in the next thirty seconds then there would be hell to pay.

"I gotta go." Len dragged Iris to her feet and shoved her crayons and paper in her small backpack that was lying around nearby. "You know the drill. Go to the park or something, stay out of the city, be gone for a few hours but make sure you're back before dark, okay?" Len knew that it wasn't safe for such a small child to be wandering around outside on her own, but it was more dangerous for her if she stayed here.

Len all but pushed Iris out the front door and hoped that, for once, she would follow his instructions. This wasn't an uncommon thing. Any time that it was possible, Len tried to make sure that Iris was out of the house and away from the crossfires. The last thing that he wanted was for her to be hurt when she didn't deserve it.

That was why Len sent her out, with the hope that by the time she returned Lewis' anger would have burned out and she would be safe...somewhat safe.

Unfortunately Iris wasn't very good at following Len's directions. Sometimes she would come home early, only to stumble upon Len while he was hurt and vulnerable, because he hadn't had time to collect himself yet. Or she would come home late, which made Len feel sick with worry. Sometimes she didn't even come home alone, because a cop or someone had found her wandering around the city by herself and had taken it upon themselves to bring her home.

Lewis was always furious whenever this happened, and Len had to practically bend over backwards to redirect his father's anger towards him, and not Iris.

Who knows though, maybe today was Len's lucky day. Maybe Iris will decide to trust his word and do as he said...yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

"Leo!" Although, maybe now wasn't the best time to be worrying about Iris. She was a resourceful girl and could take care of herself for a few hours. Really, at the moment it would be best if Len just focused on worrying about himself.

Len hurried down to the basement before he could incur his father's wrath any more than he already had. He got hit over the head harshly for taking too long, which Len had expected. His father then briefed him quickly over what was going to be gone over that day and what he expected from him. Basically, Len was to pay attention, remember every little detail, and keep his damn mouth shut.

Paying attention would come easily to him, just so long as his father didn't hit him in the head anymore. Len made it his business to memorize the little details in everything, so that would be simple. Keeping his mouth shut though? That was another matter entirely.

It wasn't too long after that when Lewis' crew for this particular heist arrived. They were planning on stealing an expensive diamond that was on display at the museum that week. Len memorized their plans, backup plans, and suggestions that never formed into something substantial. And, like the good little boy that he was, Len didn't say a word about the flaws in their plans.

Like most of his father's heists, the theft seemed to rely too much on luck. His timing was off, his backup plans were hasty and in Len's mind his father was just begging for this whole thing to go downhill.

Still, Len didn't say anything. He didn't mention that it would be much easier to steal the diamond while it was being transported rather than when it was already on display. The plan as it was would likely end with them failing at the very least, and getting caught or killed at the worst.

Not that Len cared. If these idiots couldn't carry out a proper heist then they deserved to get caught. Spending the rest of his sorry life in prison was the least that he deserved. And if he died instead of got caught...well, that would be too perfect, and Len didn't want to get his hopes up.

Len could see this planning going on for hours, not because they wanted to be sure of all of the small details, but because his father and his pals couldn't seem to agree on anything. They spent more time threatening each other and fighting than they did actually planning. Len just tucked himself in the corner and tried to wait it out.

It was during one of these fights that Len faintly heard the sound of the doorbell ringing. Grateful for the excuse to get away from the pointless violence Len went upstairs to answer the door. The Snarts didn't get guests very often, and Len just hoped that whoever was on the other side of the door wasn't there for any reason that involved Iris.

He should have known better than to get his hopes up like that.

Len opened the door and was surprised to see a man holding Iris, who seemed to be asleep in his arms. More shocking than just that though was that Len recognized the man.

"Doc?" Len was taken aback. What was the doctor from the clinic doing here? And why did he have Iris? Judging by the expression on Doc's face, he was just as surprised to see Len as Len was to see him.

"Leo?" Doc stared at him in shock. Obviously he hadn't expected to fine Len there. The question was, what was Doc doing there in the first place? Len opened his mouth to ask but felt a harsh grip on his shoulder that made him freeze in fear.

"Who the hell are you?" Lewis growled as he tightened his grip on Len's shoulder, making the boy flinch ever so slightly. It was a small reaction, but Doc still noticed it. His eyes flashed in recognition and concern, a bit of anger too. He didn't do anything though, and Len wasn't exactly sure how he felt about that.

"I'm a doctor at a nearby clinic." Doc answered. Lewis frowned and glared at Len, who fidgeted slightly under his gaze.

"And how, exactly, do you know my son?" Lewis asked darkly.

"Oh, Iris told me about him." Doc lied easily, and Lewis seemed to believe his words. It didn't even register to him that Doc had called him Leo, and Iris only ever called him Len or Lenny, but never Leo.

Len internally breathed a sigh of relief. His father would be furious with him if he found out that Len visited Doc's clinic regularly. Lewis claimed that he hurt Len to teach him a lesson, and what kind of lesson was Len learning if he tried to get rid of the lingering pain.

"Well, how do you know Iris?" Lewis was growing angrier, and Len was not happy about that.

"I'm a friend of Francine's." Doc said, which made both Len and Lewis pause. Len was almost positive that Doc was lying, or at least wasn't telling the whole truth. If he knew Francine, he would have only met her recently. If that was true though, and Doc worked at a clinic, then did that mean…

"Is she okay?" Len asked quietly. His father sent him a sharp look for speaking out of line, but Len didn't care. He had to know. Doc looked at Len and his eyes were sad, which caused a feeling of fear to well up within him.

"Francine is alive." Doc said slowly. "But she won't be for long. I came here to get Iris, to bring her to her mother. I just happened to bump into her on my way over."

"What will happen to Iris?" Len asked. His father squeezed his shoulder so hard that it would surely leave a bruise. Len knew that he should stop talking now while he was ahead, but he couldn't. If Francine died then she would no longer be able to pay Lewis to take care of Iris, and Len's father never did anything if money wasn't involved.

"I will be leaving town soon." Doc said. "And Francine entrusted Iris into my care after she's gone." Another lie, this one bolder than the previous one, but still believable. Len could tell that he was lying, but Lewis could not. Len decided to keep this specific observation to himself.

"You're not taking that girl." Lewis stepped forward threateningly and Doc took a step back, his protective grip around Iris grew tighter.

"Actually, he is." Len stepped between the two of them before things could escalate. Len was acting boldly, and he knew that he would pay for it later, but he was going to be damned if Iris stayed here any longer. "If her mother put Doc in charge of Iris, then he's her new legal guardian. If you try to stop him from taking her, it will be kidnapping."

Lewis, who had heard more than enough out of his son's mouth that day backhanded him across the face, which sent Len staggering back. Len was knocked violently into the wall, his head slamming against it with an ugly 'crack'.

Len's world goes dark after that and he must have blacked out for a minute there because the next thing he knew Len was lying on the floor, with Doc kneeling at his side and his father nowhere in sight.

"What happened?" Len asked weakly as he tried to sit up and winced at the throbbing of his head. "Where's my dad?"

"You hit your head." Doc said unhelpfully. Len was already aware that he had hit his head. Why else would it be hurting so much? "You father went back downstairs, said we have five minutes for me to get Iris' things and get out of here, and for you to get back to the basement."

"He must be feeling generous today." Len muttered as Doc helped him sit up. Len only then noticed that Doc wasn't holding Iris in his arms anymore. "Where's Iris?"

"Still sleeping. I put her on the couch." Doc answered. He handed Len a water bottle and painkillers that he carried around with him for an occasion like this one. Though Len didn't normally like it when people tried to help or take care of him he gratefully accepted the pills. He wasn't so prideful that he would rather be in pain than accept help.

"Is your dad always like this?" Doc asked.

"Only on his good days." Len said. Usually his father was much worse.

"I'm so sorry." Doc said sincerely. "I would help you if I could, but…"

"But you have to take care of Iris now." Len said. "I'm not your responsibility, but she is." Len didn't begrudge Doc for this. The man couldn't save everybody. He knew that Doc wouldn't hesitate to just take Len with him, like he was taking Iris, if it weren't for the fact that Lewis would call the authorities on him for kidnapping. Then they would all be just right back where they had started.

No, Len had to stay here. He tried to tell himself that he was fine with it, but he couldn't stop bitterness from creeping into his heart. Len wanted to escape from his father, but he couldn't. Just like he had told Iris just earlier that day; he was cursed.

There were other reasons why Len couldn't leave though, more than just his father's influence. Len had friends, people who relied on him. He couldn't just leave them. As much as he cared about them though, if one of them got an opportunity like Iris was getting Len would push for them to take it. They all deserved a better life than they had been given.

The minutes were passing and Len knew that the longer he was up here the angrier his father would be. He couldn't stall for much longer. With Doc's help Len struggled to his feet and went upstairs to help pack what little possessions Iris owned. It didn't take long and only a few minutes later Doc was ready to go, though Len couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something important.

"I'm sorry I have to go like this." Doc said as the two of them slowly returned back downstairs, neither of them quite ready to part ways. "But my past has caught up to me here. I need to leave."

"It's fine." Len closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. "I have a friend who is trying to become a doctor herself. I'm sure she'll be thrilled with the practice." Len's joke fell flat, neither of them really finding humor in it or the situation.

"Just keep an eye on yourself, Leo." Doc said. He gently picked up Iris without waking her up and took her bags in his available hand. Len laid eyes on Iris and suddenly remembered what he had nearly forgotten.

"Doc, wait, you can't leave yet." Len said urgently. Doc looked at him in confusion and concern.

"I don't have long, Leo." Doc said. "Do you have any injuries that you need-"

"No, it's not that." Len said. "But Iris isn't...Francine didn't-" Before Len could figure out the right words to say the wailing of police sirens came through. The sirens sounded far off, a block at the very least, yet still Len was nervous. When one is a thief they do not exactly have a good relationship with policemen.

What Len didn't understand though was that Doc seemed even more nervous about the sirens than he was.

"I'm sorry, Leo, but I have to go now." Without another word Doc went out the front door.

"Doc, wait!" Len tried to go after him but his headache, which was quite possibly a concussion, was making it impossible for him. Len couldn't move quickly without his head erupting in pain. By the time Len got outside it looked as though Doc had already left, with Iris tight in his arms.

Len cursed under his breath and felt a chill come over him as he realized that Doc had actually gone, and he wasn't likely to be coming back. He had left without knowing...Doc had no idea that…

Len shook his head and forced the thought to the back of his mind. He would worry about that problem later tonight, when he could afford to think about it. For now though his father was expecting him, and if Len took any longer than he already had then he wouldn't be moving for a week. Lewis would definitely see to that.

Len hurried back down to the basement, but he was still nearly ten minutes later than his dad had wanted him to be. His father was either in a merciful mood that day or was too focused on the plans in front of him because Lewis barely looked twice when his son finally returned. Len knew that Lewis would probably just saving the punishment for later that night when he wasn't so busy, but at the moment Len didn't care. He was just glad to be given a break for a bit.

Len spent the next few hours just standing in his corner silently, watching as the others argued. He wasn't paying attention as closely as he had been before, but that was fine. Later, when his head stopped feeling like it was about to be split open, Len would come back down here and memorize the plans until he knew them better than his father did. Until then though all Len had to do was try not to do anything to make his father any angrier than he already was.

Len bit his tongue and avoided eye contact, unless his father directly asked something of him. After what felt like forever, and yet, at the same time, no time at all, Len's father and his pals finished up their plans for the night. Lewis, who had long since gotten tired of their company, kicked them out of the house as quickly as he could.

With the two of them being the only ones in the house the punishment that Len had been expecting all day finally happened. Len had known that it had been coming, but that didn't mean that he had been looking forward to this.

Len wasn't entirely sure what his father was angry about. All Len knew was that he didn't want to make things worse for himself. Usually when Lewis tried to beat him like this Len would at least try to fight back, especially if Iris wasn't around. Tonight though Len didn't even bother fighting back. He wasn't strong enough to stand up to his father, and all he ever got from trying was more pain. So when Len got knocked down to the ground he didn't bother getting up. He just laid there.

His father sneered at him, said something about him being pathetic, and, just for good measure, kicked Len in the chest hard. Len cried out in pain. It barely registered to him that there had been another cracking sound and his ribs were more likely than not completely broken. He barely noticed, and he didn't care. At the moment it didn't matter to him just what was wrong with them, just that they hurt like hell.

On the bright side, Lewis seemed to have decided that Len had had enough. Still shouting angry insults Lewis stomped into the kitchen, probably to get a beer, and Len was grateful for that. Lewis would end up drinking himself into a stupor, and would soon pass out on the couch, like he always did. Len just had to wait a little longer and he would be free.

Thirty seven minutes and forty two seconds later Lewis had gotten himself truly drunk and became dead to the world. Len knew from experience that nothing short of an explosion would wake his father, which was fortunate because Len had the feeling that he would be making quite a bit of noise when he finally got himself up from the ground.

Len waited another fifteen minutes, just to be sure that his father was well and truly asleep, before even attempting to get up. Len pushed himself slowly into a sitting position, holding his breath as he did so. His ribs flared painfully at the slightest movement that he made, which did not make the experience fun or easy. Len had gotten bruised and cracked ribs before, multiple times in fact, but had never actually broken any. Now he knew for a fact that it hurt much worse.

Len was grateful that he was near a wall and could use it to help pull himself up to his feet. It made the process a lot easier, though still painful. Len had to force himself to not cry out in pain every few seconds, though he couldn't stop the constant whimpers and hisses. Len may have a high pain tolerance, but that didn't mean he still didn't feel pain.

Len wrapped an arm around his chest and for a few minutes just practiced breathing in and out until he found a way to do so that didn't hurt so much. With that under control Len made his way into the kitchen and grabbed the sandwich that had been left there that afternoon. Len wasn't going to be the one to eat it, he didn't think he could stomach anything at the moment, but he knew a couple of kids who would like it.

Iris hadn't been the only kid that Len had kept an eye on. There was actually a half a dozen others that Len helped take care of as well. Some of them were orphans, some of them had been thrown out by their family, and others technically still had a home but prefered being a part of the little gang.

They called themselves The Rogues, and even though Len wasn't the oldest, or the one who was at their hideout most often, he was considered their leader. The kids counted on him to take care of them, and Len took that responsibility very seriously.

Because of his dad Len wasn't able to get to their hideout every single night, but he was determined to be there tonight. He hadn't seen the others in a few days, and Len missed them. Besides, Len had something very important to talk to his partner about.

Len's partner was a teenager named Mick Rory. He was a few years older than Len, and they were best friends. Mick watched over the kids whenever Len couldn't. They made a pretty good team. And some decisions, like the one that had been running through Len's mind since Doc had left with Iris, had to be made together.

The Rogue's stayed in an old, abandoned warehouse at the edge of town. It was drafty, cold, and falling apart, but it was theirs. It took Len longer to get there than it usually did, but that was to be expected. Len eventually arrived at the warehouse, which appeared locked up to somebody who didn't know any better. There was a hidden hole that the kids normally used as an entrance, but Len really didn't think it would be a good idea to be crawling around in his state.

Len went to the large metal door and pounded on it with his fist. "Mick, open up!" Len shouted. A minute later the large door was opened by Mick who, at first glance looked annoyed, but Len knew Mick well, and he recognized the look of concern on his face.

"What the hell happened to you?" Mick asked. The larger boy automatically stepped forward to support Len, who probably looked dead on his feet. Mick's attempt to help caused Len to move in the wrong way, causing his ribs to flare up. Len hissed in pain and Mick took a step back, the concern on his face even more obvious than before.

"What did your old man do to you?" Mick all but growled.

"It doesn't matter." Len shook his head. He couldn't deal with an overprotective Mick right now. He would gets his injuries taken care of just as soon as he knew how everybody else was doing. "I'll take care of it later." He assured Mick, just to get him to calm down. Mick glared at him, not believing a word he said, but ultimately shrugged and decided not to push it, which Len was grateful for.

Mick and Len walked from what used to be the loading dock to the large main room where most of the others were. Len could see Clyde and Mark Mardon playing a videogame that they had stolen a few months before. On the floor Len could see little Axel, one of their youngest, talking his mouth off to Hartley, who looked about ready to kill the five year old. And with good reason, Len believed.

"Axel, get over." Len called out irritably. Axel looked up and beamed when he saw Len. He got to his feet and ran over. He tried to give Len a hug, but Mick stopped him in his tracks. Len looked down at the little kid and frowned. Axel's smile went away when he saw that Len didn't look happy with him.

"Axel, how many times do I have to tell you that you can't talk to Hartley?" Len scolded. Axel frowned and looked close to tears.

"But he looks so sad all the time." Axel whined.

"I know." Len said gently. "And it's great that you want to be friends, but Hartley's different from other people, remember?"

"Uh, yeah." Axel's face scrunched up as he tried to remember. "Because he's dead." Mick snorted at Axel's words, and Len smirked in amusement.

"Not quite." Len corrected. "Hartley's actually _deaf._ "

"Oh." Axel nodded in understanding, and then a look of confusion came over his face. "What's that?"

"It means he can't hear anything, remember?" Len reminded him patiently. He had told Axel this multiple times already, but the kid was young, and it took a while for an idea to become cemented into his brain. "If you want to talk to Hartley you have to use your hands."

"Oh, yeah." Axel nodded and grinned. He remembered the fun hand signs that Len had taught him.

"I have a new sign for you to learn." Len ripped the half sandwich in his hands in half again and gave them to Axel. With his available hands Len demonstrated the sign for 'sandwich' to Axel. The little boy nodded and ran back to Hartley, eager to show his friend what he had learned.

Axel gave one of the sandwiches to Hartley, put the other one on the floor and sloppily copied the sign that Len had shown him. It wasn't done perfectly, none of Axel's signs were, but Hartley still understood what Axel was saying. Hartley smiled, once again forgiving Axel for forgetting that he couldn't hear. The two of them were rather close, even though Hartley was nearly two years older than Axel. Hartley frequently got angry and upset with Axel whenever the younger boy tried to talk to him with words, but forgive him soon after simply because Axel was trying to learn a language that Hartley understood.

"I don't get how you always know what to do with those two." Mick huffed. "I've been trying to get them to stop fighting for hours, and then you waltz in, do some weird shit with your hands and everything is better."

"It's a gift." Len said slyly. He took another look around the room to confirm that it was indeed just the six of them in there. "Did Roy leave already?"

"Yeah." Mick grunted and Len nodded. He had suspected as much. Unlike most of the others Roy Bivolo, a small nine year old, didn't actually live in the warehouse. He had his own home, and a family that cared about him. The kid just liked to hang around with them.

"Boo's in the other room, watching the brat." Mick added. He raised an eyebrow at Len. "You know, it's been waiting for you."

" _It_ is a _he_ , Mick." Len said sharply. "And _he_ has a name."

Mick tilted his head. "I thought you weren't supposed to name something you weren't going to get attached to."

"That's for pets." Len made his way to the other room with Mick at his heels. "Besides, plans change."

"Hang on." Mick grabbed Len's arm, causing him to flinch and pull away. Mick frowned and let go, holding his hands up for Len to see. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's complicated." Len crosses his arms over himself. "I told you about Francine, right?"

"Isn't that Girly's mom?" Mick frowned. Girly was his name for Iris, so he did know about Francine. "She's sick, right?"

"Yeah." Len nodded. "It's worse than I thought it was."

"How much worse." Mick narrowed his eyes.

"Doc says that she's dying." Len said. "He came by to pick up Iris, said that he promised Francine that he would take care of her."

"You mean permanently?" Mick asked and Len nodded, confirming it. "Shit." Mick hissed, showing that he was as surprised at this turn of events as Len was. A minute later Mick's face darkened in confusion. "Wait, so Doc's gone? But what about-"

"I don't know." Len admitted, which shut Mick up right away. Len rarely ever admitted that he didn't know something. "I don't think Doc even knows about him. I wouldn't be surprised if Francine forgot entirely, so how could he know?"

"Shit." Mick muttered again, this time from frustration. "What are we supposed to do?"

"We'll think of something." Len said. He continued making his way toward the back room. He heard Mick swear under his breath, saying something about how he's 'not a damn babysitter'. Still Mick followed him.

Len tentatively opened the door to the back room and quietly went inside. The room was small and practically empty. The only furniture was a chair and a makeshift crib. Shawna was curled up in the chair, half asleep. Len looked back at Mick and gestured to a stray blanket that was lying on the floor. Mick grunted but picked up the blanket which he draped over Shawna. The ten year old girl moaned slightly and turned over, snuggling herself deeper into the blanket's warmth.

Len watched Shawna rest for a moment before turning his attention to the crib and the last member of their little gang. Laying in the crib fast asleep was a small infant who was just a few months old. His name was Wally, and he was Francine's son.

The sad thing was, Len wasn't even sure if Francine knew that she had a son.

The last time Len had actually seen Francine, when he had found out about Wally's existence, the woman had not been well off at all. Len had only come looking for her because his father had sent him. Francine usually paid Lewis every six months for Iris, but she was a few months late, so Len had been sent to retrieve the money. When Len found Francine he was shocked, and honestly a little scared, at the state she was in.

Francine had been delirious. She didn't even notice Len even when he was standing right in front of her face. It had sounded like she was talking to Iris, as if she actually believed that her daughter was there even though she hadn't been for more than a year. Francine was in her own little world, completely oblivious to what was real.

She didn't notice Len, and she didn't even acknowledge the wailing of of a newborn child. Francine may not have noticed the child's crying, but Len certainly did. Confused and Curious Len quickly found the source of the crying and was surprised to see the small baby. Just by looking at it Len knew that the kid was Francine's, and he didn't seem any better off than she did.

The poor kid was young, only a few weeks old. Len didn't have much experience with babies, but he knew that this kid looked too small to be healthy. It looked as though the kid was getting sick too, from lack of attention. Francine was way too out of it to even take proper care of herself, let alone a baby. And Len got the feeling that she was only going to get worse.

Len had made a hasty decision that day. He couldn't just leave the kid to die. If Francine didn't have her act enough together to take care of a little kid, than she certainly wouldn't be able to take care of a baby. Somebody had to take care of the kid though, and Len knew that he couldn't take the baby home with him. If Lewis found out that Francine had another kid than he would force her to pay him for that kid too, and then not truly take care of it. Francine was barely making ends meet as it was. The last thing she needed was to be even more indebted to Lewis Snart.

Len said a quick but sincere apology to Francine, who still didn't acknowledge him. Len carefully picked up the crying baby and left quickly before he could change his mind. Len immediately went to the old warehouse that had become their hideout. It took some convincing but Mick agreed to help take care of the kid, but only for just as long as was needed. Once Francine was better the kid was out.

Neither boy had really considered the idea that Francine wouldn't get better.

"What are we going to do with him, Mick?" Len asked quietly. He hated how weak and vulnerable he sounded. Mick put a hand on his shoulder, and, for once, Len didn't flinch away from it.

"You'll come up with something." Mick assured him. "You always do. Until then, we'll just do what we've been doing so far."

"We're going to take care of him?" Len looked at Mick in shock.

"We're going to take care of _all_ of them." Mick said. He gave Len's shoulder a reassuring, gentle squeeze. Len smiled slightly and leaned into the touch. It was times like these that he really appreciated having Mick around. He may be rough around the edges, but underneath that violent exterior was a surprisingly gentle person. Mick only showed that side of himself to a select few, and Len considered himself lucky to be one of them.

The two of them stayed like that for another moment before it officially began to feel awkward. Mick took his shoulder away, grunted something about the younger boys in the other room and left. Len was now alone with Wally.

Looking at the sleeping infant Len realized that maybe Wally belonged in their group more than he had originally thought. All of them were misfits and outsiders, and the only people that they had was each other.

Mick was a delinquent that nobody trusted. Len's father was abusive and controlling. Shawna's only family had been her dad, and he had died just recently. Clyde and Mark were brothers who had run away from home together. Hartley had been kicked out by his wealthy parents, just because he was deaf, thus, imperfect (and possibly also because he was gay, though Len couldn't know that for sure until the kid was a little older.) And then there was Axel, who technically still lived with his dad, but considering his father was a clinically insane lunatic Len didn't blame the kid one bit for preferring to hang out with them rather than be at home.

And then there was Wally, a kid whose own mother had honestly forgotten that he existed. The baby fit in right in with their ragtag team. The other kids had already accepted Wally as one of their own. Hartley was especially fond of the baby, though Len suspected that that was because he couldn't hear it when the baby cried his lungs out. Mick was right. Nothing had changed.

"Looks like you're officially one of us, Wally." Len said quietly. "Welcome to The Rogues."

* * *

 **A/N: Geeze, this thing was more of a pain in the butt to write than I thought it would be. Maybe that's because midway through writing it I decided to change the way that I was doing it, so I scrapped what I had written and started again.**

 **Interesting fact about this chapter. For the stuff between Mick and Len I seriously had to refrain myself from making it too slashy. Because, yes, I am a shipper of Mick and Len, and it's just so easy to write them together when they're both young and vulnerable. However it's not a pairing that I'm having in this story. Starting next chapter I'm going to be having Len be head over heels interested in somebody else, and I can't do that if he has a thing for Mick. Fair warning to all readers though, the person that Len will be interested in is still a guy, so be ready for that.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: And I'm back! I'm sorry for the wait. I kinda fell into a writing slump for a bit, but I'm back again, and ready to write. I hope you're ready for stuff to begin happening, because I sure am.**

* * *

Thirteen years passed and the world fell into chaos. Through a series of incidents and events that nobody quite understands the world was now inhabited not just by humans, but people called meta-humans. They were people with extraordinary powers and abilities. Some people hid the fact that they had powers and went about their daily lives as if nothing had changed. Some people used their powers for good.

Others did not.

There were many meta-humans who used their powers to get away with crimes. And then there were those who went mad with power and used their new-found abilities to control and hurt those that were weaker than them. There were many powerful meta-humans who caused problems on their own, but their was one city that had been completely taken over by them.

Central City.

A speedster that went by the name Zoom had gathered together an army of meta's and, with their help, had taken over the city. They had so much power and control over the city that even the police force followed their command. Anybody who stood up against them was destroyed, and even though the majority of cops didn't like it, they had little choice but to do as they were told. After all, they couldn't protect the people of the city if they were dead.

And right now the best way to protect them was to keep them from doing anything stupid that would cause the meta's to get mad.

Of course, not everybody agreed with that philosophy. Most of the citizens were too afraid of the meta-humans to even think about doing anything to anger them. There were some though who weren't afraid. People who wanted to rebel against Zoom's tyrannical rule.

One of these rebels was a young teenager named Wally.

"Zoom and his meta-human army have terrorized our city for too long." Wally was speaking before a group of people, some of whom seemed interested in what he had to say. Some saw his brave words as mere stupidity. Most of the people just seemed concerned and wary, because they were nervous that any minute now Zoom's people would discover them and they would all be in huge trouble.

Wally himself seemed unconcerned about the potential danger. He spoke boldly and without fear, with a bravery beyond his years. "This city, this _world_ , belongs to us, and I say that it's past time we take it back."

"What are you doing?" An exasperated voice asked, causing Wally to jump. The boy turned around, tense and ready for a fight. He relaxed when he saw the familiar young adult who had surprised him.

"Barry," Wally sighed in relief, trying to hide the fact that he had been scared for a second there. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Barry grabbed Wally's arm and pulled him away. Wally tried to fight against him, but Barry was older and stronger than he was. Wally couldn't help but be pulled into an alleyway that was out of sight. Once they were alone Barry turned to look at him, his eyes wide and filled with concern.

"What were you thinking?" Barry asked desperately. "You can't just go out and try to rally up the people against Zoom."

"Why not?" Wally asked. He tried to ignore the battling feelings of guilt of making Barry worry, and anger that he was, once again, being treated like a child. Wally didn't care that he was the youngest of their group, he could still do something to help them, and that was exactly what he had been trying to do. "You guys are saying all the time that we need more support from the people. That if there's enough of us we can get rid of Zoom and the others."

"We can't just involve civilians like that." Barry said sternly yet gently. "You know it doesn't work like that. We can't force people to fight if they don't want to."

"I wasn't going to force anybody to do anything." Wally huffed and crossed his arms. "But how can we know if anybody's interested in joining us if they don't know that we exist?"

"Well, can't you at least do your little recruitment project in a not so public place next time?" Barry pleaded. "What if you were caught."

Wally stood up straight and puffed up his chest slightly. "I can take care of myself." He insisted stubbornly.

"You're just a kid." Barry groaned and shook his head while he ran a hand through his hair.

Wally frowned. "I'm thirteen. I'm not a kid anymore. I know how to handle myself."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Barry agreed with a somewhat sad smile. "You've been taught by the best."

"Hell yeah I have." Wally smirked.

"And it looks like they taught you _that_ too." Barry groaned again. He always hated it whenever Wally swore, even though he himself did it all the time. It was like Barry thought that since Wally was younger that it was somehow incredibly taboo for him to curse like that. It made Wally appreciate that not everybody saw things the way Barry did. At home they were fine with swearing. In fact, it was even somewhat encouraged as a decent non-violent expression of anger.

"Alright, Wally, you may have good survival skills for a kid your age," Barry said, jumping right back into lecturing mode. "But I _know_ you haven't been taught to wander off on your own and endanger yourself."

Wally frowned and looked at the ground, because as much as he hated being treated like a child, he knew that Barry had a point. Wally was given a lot of freedom at home, that's what happened when you're practically raised by a pair of crooks who were constantly crossing over the line of what was legal and what wasn't. Even with all the freedom he had, he knew that it would be snatched away before he could blink if they knew what he was doing with it.

Barry, seeing that Wally was well aware that he may have messed up, sighed. "Come on." Barry took the teenager's hand. "I'll help you find the others."

In the end it was Wally who ended up leading Barry to where the others were, and not the other way around. Barry may be friends with them, but Wally had _lived_ with them his whole life, so he knew a thing or two about where they would end up being.

Wally led Barry to a semi-crowded part of the city. There were lots of people bustling around, and yet almost immediately Wally and Barry both saw a familiar face. Leonard Snart, Wally's main guardian, and one of Barry's closest friends.

He was standing at the corner nonchalantly, and most people didn't even cast him a passing glance. That was the type of person that he was. Len knew how to blend in effortlessly when around strangers, and yet stuck out like a sore thumb to those who were familiar with him.

Barry grinned dorkishly when he saw Len, which caused Wally to smirk happily. Barry had lots of other friends besides Len, most of whom were much more friendlier than Len, and yet he always got excited to see him. Wally had seen what Barry was like when he was around his other friends, and what was going on between him and Len was something completely different. Wally didn't know if the differences meant anything special, or if that was just the way things were.

Secretly, Wally hoped that it _did_ mean something. He didn't know about Barry, but Wally knew for certain that _Len_ valued their friendship a lot, and certainly wouldn't complain to maybe someday having a bit _more_ than friendship with Barry...Not like Len would ever admit it, of course.

Wally knew that it probably wasn't going to happen, but hey, he could still hope, right? And who knows? Maybe someday Barry and Len would become...something.

Though based on the fact that Barry had been completely oblivious to Len's feelings for the past two years now, and Len's hatred for talking about anything even remotely emotional, Wally doubted that that day would end up coming any time soon.

"Something's wrong." Barry said quietly with a slight frown, causing Wally to look up at him. "Len's too tense."

"He's always tense." Wally said dismissively, but he took a look anyways and saw that Barry was right. Len did seem more tense than usual, and that's saying something. Wally felt a chill come over him and he looked around. There were only so many things in the world that could cause Len to worry, and Wally had a bad feeling that he knew exactly what he was stressed about right now.

There were lots of people mulling about, but now that Wally knew what he was looking for he quickly saw another familiar face in the crowd, and this one was nowhere near as friendly as Len was. The man was Lewis Snart, or, as Mick liked to call him, The Bastard, which Wally believed was a pretty accurate description.

Lewis Snart was Len's father, and the biggest jerk in existence. He was a greedy man who thrived off of the suffering of others, just as long as he gained from it. He was a thief, a murderer, and abusive. The man was always punishing Len for something or other, and then forced him into helping him with some half-planned scheme.

That must be what Len was here for. His father was up to something, like he always was, and Len had little choice but to be an accomplice. Wally frowned at the thought. Len was the strongest person he knew, and yet here he was, being bullied into doing something he didn't want to do.

It sucked.

If the angry look in Barry's eyes was anything to go off of, he had also seen Lewis, and he believed the same thing. Barry knew about Len's dad...kinda. He didn't know everything, because Len didn't want him to, but Barry knew enough.

Wally narrowed his eyes in confusion. It was obvious that Lewis was up to something, but he didn't know what. It didn't _seem_ like he was getting ready to murder somebody or commit a big heist or something. It just looked like he was maybe going to pickpocket somebody (even though he was never very good at that) or was on the lookout for potential customers, because Lewis Snart, in his free time, sold things on the black market or dealt in drugs.

"What is Len even doing here?" Barry asked irritably, though there was also concern in his voice. "I thought his dad only dragged him into the bigger things." It looked like Barry had figured out the same thing as Wally had, about Lewis not being up to something big at the moment.

"Usually." Wally admitted. "I bet The Bastard's just making Len do this to teach him a lesson." It certainly sounded like something that Lewis would do. Barry frowned at Wally and opened his mouth, probably to rebuke him for swearing or something like that, but froze suddenly before actually saying anything. He just stood there, staring at something.

Slightly confused and curious Wally looked toward where Barry was looking. All Wally could see was that Lewis had found a new customer/victim. He was talking to and/or harassing a middle aged man and a young woman who was with him. The woman was young, she was probably about 19 or 20, just two or three years younger than Barry was. She looked vaguely familiar to Wally, but other than that he didn't see anything special about her.

Wally was fairly certain that it was the woman that Barry was staring at, which probably meant that he saw something in her that Wally had missed. Barry wasn't the only one whose attention the woman caught. Len, who had glanced toward his father, just to see how things were going, also saw the young woman and the man. Unlike Barry though, Len's eyes widened in recognition, as if he somehow knew these people.

And he wasn't the only one.

Wally noticed when the look in Lewis Snart's eyes changed. They went from greedy and dishonest to angry and malicious in a heartbeat. There was a look of recognition in his eyes as well, which told Wally that both Lewis and Len somehow knew this man and woman, which meant that things would probably not be turning out very well for them.

Wally's prediction proved to be right just seconds later when Lewis, who looked absolutely furious and possessive, reached out and grabbed the woman's arm, pulling her toward him. It looked like he was skipping trying to charm them and was jumping right into the forcing stage of getting what he wanted.

The moment Lewis grabbed the young woman's arm Len's eyes flashed dangerously and protectively, which Wally didn't really understand. This woman was a complete stranger to him, and yet Len seemed to know her well enough that he felt a need to protect her. Just who was she?

Wally had no idea what Lewis wanted with the woman, and he never got the chance to find out. Before Lewis could even have the chance to _think_ about doing something Len went to him and, in a rare act of defiance, pulled the woman out of his father's grip. Wally could tell that Len was saying something, probably trying to reason with his father, but his words did nothing to calm down Lewis.

Infuriated, Len's father drew back his fist and punched Len in the gut. It wasn't that hard of a hit, and Len had definitely dealt with worse before. Still, Wally felt a fury build up inside of him, and a desire to protect. Even though he knew that there probably wasn't anything he would be able to do, Wally still fan forward, determined to do _something._

Wally hadn't gotten very far before a firm hand pulled him back. For a second Wally believed that Barry had stopped ogling the woman and had stopped him, but when he turned Wally found himself face to face, not with Barry, but a total stranger who, like the woman, looked strangely familiar to Wally.

"Hang on, kid." The man said sternly, but not necessarily unkindly. "You don't want to get involved in that. Let me deal with it."

Wally, frustrated and concerned, didn't understand what this stranger could do when he didn't understand the situation. And also, why would he help people he didn't even know? Wally's questions were answered when the man reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a badge. Wally barely had time to register what it meant when the man stormed toward the commotion.

"Alright, break it up!" The man shouted. "Detective Joe West, CCPD." At those words the crowd, which had been fidgety because of the fight began to outright panic. In the eyes of the public, the only thing worse than cops arriving were Zoom's forces. The way some people saw things though, they were one in the same.

Everybody began pushing each other out of the way, each of them wanting to get as far away from a cop as possible. Detective West had no interest in the scurrying crowd though. He was only concerned about what Snart was up to.

"What's the trouble here?" Detective West asked.

"No trouble, officer." Lewis said slickly, his voice just dripping with sarcasm.

"Detective." Len corrected quietly. Lewis glared at him darkly, causing Len to lower his gaze and back away from his father.

"You know what the trouble is." Detective West all but growled. "You were harassing that young woman, and-"

"What woman?" Wally cut in. The detective turned to look at him, obviously irritated at such an obvious question.

"You know what woman." Detective West said irritably. "She's right-" He trailed off when he noticed that the woman that Lewis had been bothering, as well as her middle-aged friend, had both disappeared with the rest of the crowd.

"What? Where did they go?" Detective West was as confused as the rest of them. "She had no reason to leave. She was the victim here."

"And with her gone, there's no victim, so there's no reason for _you_ to be here either." Lewis said snidely. Detective West glared at Lewis, and it was clear he wanted nothing more than to arrest him, or possibly shoot him. However since there was no victim around to press charges, there was nothing he could do.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you." Detective West warned. He gave them a warning look before leaving, since Lewis had had a point when he said that he didn't have a reason to be here anymore. Lewis waited until he was gone before his expression darkened. Lewis scowled at his son, but, to their surprise, left without saying, or doing, anything.

Wally went to Len's side. "He's up to something."

"Most likely." Len had a distant look in his eyes, as if his mind was preoccupied. Wally looked at Len and frowned.

"Are you okay?" Wally asked. He wasn't just worried because Len had been punched, though Wally was not happy with him getting hurt, but also because Len seemed worried himself. Len seemed to be concerned about things all the time, but he never really let it show. Right now though, Wally could _tell_ that Len was worried, which meant that it must be serious.

Len opened his mouth, probably to say that he was fine, when Barry, finally, came over to join them. "Len," Barry's voice sounded somewhat urgent, which definitely caught Len's attention. "Who was that girl?"

Len frowned slightly, a protective look came over his eyes, though Wally wasn't sure if he was protective toward the woman he somehow knew, or if he was protecting himself. Honestly, either option was a possibility. For a second it seemed like Len wasn't going to say anything, but that moment passed.

Len sighed. "She's just some kid I used to know a long time ago."

"So you _do_ know her." Wally had known he was right.

"What's she like?" Barry asked insistently. Len raised an eyebrow at him.

"I don't know." Len said patronizingly, as if it was a stupid question. "I haven't seen her since she was a kid. It's been more than ten years."

"Oh." Barry blushed slightly in embarrassment. "How did you know her?"

"Does it matter?" Len crossed his arms.

"I was just curious." Barry said unhappily. Len eyed him for a moment.

"She lived with us for a bit." Len admitted finally. He glanced at Wally before continuing. "When her mom got sick she started living with somebody else." That must have been who the man that was with her was.

"Okay," Barry nodded. "What's, uh, what's her name?" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, though Wally had no idea what he had to be nervous about. After all, he was just asking about the name of some...girl.

Oh.

Len frowned. "It's Iris."

"Iris." Barry grinned like a dope, which caused Len to scowl. "I have to see her again." Barry looked at Len with pleading, desperate eyes. "Where can I find her?"

Wally groaned. A desperate and clueless Barry was never fun to deal with. He was just about to remind Barry that Len hadn't seen Iris in years, and had no way of knowing where she was. However, Len beat him to it.

"I don't know." Len admitted. Barry's expression fell and he looked so disappointed. Len sighed. "But I may be able to find out."

Barry brightened up immediately. "Len, you're the best." Barry hugged Len suddenly, which caused him to stiffen for a moment before relaxing and returning the embrace.

Wally watched, concerned about how this was going to turn out. It was obvious that Barry seemed to have a thing for this Iris, even though he had barely even laid eyes on her. Wally didn't understand how you could have feelings for somebody you didn't even know, but he knew that Barry's feelings were still sincere. He knew because of the eyes. The look in Barry's eyes when he saw Iris was the same look that Len got whenever he was around Barry.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Wally asked Len in a pleading tone. He really didn't think that Len, of all people, should help Barry find where his newfound crush was. If he did, it would only end in pain.

"It's _fine_ , Wally." Len said in a warning tone, and Wally knew that nothing he said would get him to change his mind. Len turned to Barry. "If I'm going to be doing this though, _you_ have to talk to Hartley. Remind him that he can't stay at your little lab all the time, and he has to come home at some point."

"Yeah, I can do that." Barry smiled appreciatively.

"Why don't you go with him, Wally?" Len suggested, though like most of his suggestions, it was more of an order. Wally frowned and looked between Barry and Len. He didn't really want to let Len go off to find Iris and deal with this whole thing on his own, but with one look Wally knew that there was no way Len would let him join him.

Besides, Barry would be heading towards STAR Labs, which was Wally's favorite place in the world, and he was always looking for an excuse to go there. STAR Labs was a research facility, though for a while now it also doubled as a kind of headquarters for The Resistance against Zoom's forces.

The team at STAR Labs had always done what they could to make life better for people, and ever since Zoom had taken over, that had meant figuring out how to stop him. Barry worked at STAR Labs, and for the past few years, Hartley did too.

Hartley had been born deaf, and it was only because of STAR Labs and their efforts that he was able to hear anything at all today. Somehow they had learned about Hartley's condition (Wally suspected that Len had something to do with it) and they became determined to help. It took some time, and lots of trial and error, but the scientists were eventually able to come up with hearing aids for him, and they didn't even ask for payment.

Still, Hartley had felt indebted to them, and he had taken to working around the labs, offering any assistance that he could. Eventually they just gave him a job there, and Hartley had been working almost non-stop since then. At first he had just been a scientist, though now that STAR Lab's was focusing on taking down Zoom, Hartley was just as invested in The Resistance as any of them.

Wally was also really into rebelling against Zoom, which was why he also spent so much time at STAR Labs. He wanted to help people and be useful, and being an unofficial part of The Resistance gave him the chance to do just that.

Len wasn't very happy with either Hartley or Wally's involvement in these meta-human matters. He had made it clear that he didn't believe that this wasn't their battle, and they would just end up getting themselves killed by sticking their noses in places where they didn't belong. Still, Hartley and Wally were both stubborn, and they refused to quit. Len had no choice but to reluctantly let them do what they wanted. He still took every opportunity to let them know he didn't approve, but he didn't interfere with what they wanted.

Len was probably thinking that they would fail and have to learn their lesson the painful and hard way. Maybe he was right, though the way that today had gone, Wally was leaning more toward the idea that _Len_ was going to be the one to be learning a painful lesson.

It made Wally feel glad that he had never fallen in love before. There were a lot of things that Len believed that Wally disagreed with, though one thing that Len always insisted on was starting to look like it was actually true. Or, at least, that it was for Len.

" _Don't open yourself up to others. It just makes it easier for them to hurt you."_

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so this chapter ended up kinda...different. I'm still happy with it, it's just different from the way that I usually write. Maybe that's why it took so long to write...either that or I'm just lazy. Seriously, either is a possibility.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: And I'm back. Sorry it took so long, I got caught up in writing other stories, but here's an update. Fortunately it didn't take all that long to write. It's much easier to motivate myself to write something when the words come easily to me rather than when I have to struggle to find what to say.**

 **Anyways, in this chapter I mention Harrison Wells, the version I'm using in this story is basically the one from earth 2. Just thought I'd let you know.**

* * *

STAR Labs was a decently sized building, though a little small for the types of experiments that they used to do there. It wasn't the only research facility in Central City, but it was one of the more well known ones, even if they hadn't been coming out with very many science discoveries or inventions ever since Zoom took over a few years before.

For its reputation though STAR Labs really didn't have that impressive of a faculty. In years prior they used to have countless scientists and assistants workings around the labs, but when they began focusing more on fighting against Zoom and his forces many people had ended up quitting. Only a handful of their scientists had stayed on to help with the cause.

The few STAR Lab's employees were fortunately not the only ones that were part of the rebellion, because if that were the case then this whole battle really would be a lost cause. Barry had joined up with them shortly after Zoom's take over, and so had Hartley. There were other people besides them though, including some vigilantes (Cisco's word for them, not theirs. Honestly, Oliver would probably shoot the first person who called him a vigilante) from Star City.

Wally liked to hang out around STAR Labs as well, which Barry had mixed feelings about. It was always fun to have Wally around, and his enthusiasm towards what they were doing was always refreshing, but he did _not_ like a kid being so close to stuff that was so dangerous. Wally was a rebellious and free spirit though and nobody could tell him what he could and couldn't do, so instead Barry just made sure to keep an eye on Wally, just to make sure that nothing would happen to him. If _any_ harm came to Wally while he was under Barry's watch, Len would probably end up killing _both_ of them.

Barry knew that he would probably have to keep an especially close eye on Wally today, because the young teenager seemed to be distracted and Barry half expected him to just run off unannounced any second now. This wasn't necessarily strange behavior for Wally, except for the fact that they were currently heading to STAR Labs. Wally usually ran off _to_ the labs, not away from them, and yet today he seemed hesitant, like he didn't know whether he wanted to go or not.

Wally had been silent, distracted and conflicted ever since they had parted ways with Len. Barry wondered if maybe that was _why_ Wally was like this, that he was worried about Len and didn't want to be away from him, but Barry couldn't help but wonder why Wally was worried about Len in the first place.

Sure, Len had seemed kinda upset, even Barry had recognized that much, and he himself was worried, but not all that much. Len was an adult and he knew how to take care of himself. He had pretty much been taking care of himself, and others, his whole life. Barry had faith that whatever was bothering Len right now, he could deal with it on his own.

Not that Barry necessarily wanted to leave Len to deal with his problems by himself. Len was his friend, and Barry was a firm believer in helping your friends, but that was kind of hard to do when Len made it clear that he didn't _want_ help. Len was a very independent individual and he always refused to look for, or even accept help, from anybody, not even, or maybe especially, from his friends.

Still, Barry's first instinct was to try to help Len in some way. He fought against the feeling though because Barry knew that if he offered assistance of any kind it would just end with Len pushing him away, and that wasn't what Barry wanted at all. So he just stood to the side and let Len deal with his own things in his own way, ready to offer support if and when it was needed or wanted.

In the meantime Barry had other things to focus his mind on, like the work they were doing at STAR Labs. For the past while there had been talk of a war going on any day now, and they were all preparing for battle. Cisco and Hartley were working with Doctor Wells to make cuffs that could block the powers of any meta-human. Those would certainly come in handy for when they eventually faced Zoom.

They were also modifying an area of the labs to lock some of the more dangerous meta-humans in, at least for a bit. There was a lot of arguments made about it being unlawful imprisonment if they actually lock away anybody, and it was a very controversial matter, but what other choice did they have? It wasn't safe to let many of these meta-humans wander around the streets, and it wasn't like the police were going to do anything about it.

So despite intense arguments from Hartley and Len, who were the two people most against the idea, they went through with making the holding cells, and had even tested them out. They had had to promise that this wasn't going to be a permanent thing though. That they would only lock up the meta-humans for as long as they were a threat.

Barry tried not to think about the holding cells much, because even though he was for the idea he did agree that it was bordering on cruel. He couldn't let his thoughts linger on the possibilities of what might happen if they used the cells, he had other things to worry about. Once the danger was gone and the war that everybody was talking about was over, then there would be time to talk about reforming any individual meta's they might have caught.

Both Barry and Wally were so caught up in their thoughts that they barely even noticed when they arrived at STAR Labs. They had barely said a word to each other as they went, and it was a little shocking to both of them to arrive at the labs and suddenly be bombarded by noise, greetings, and an argument between Cisco and Hartley. Basically, it was just another day at STAR Labs.

"What're they fighting about this time?" Wally asked curiously. He didn't seem all that concerned or annoyed that Cisco and Hartley were, once again, arguing over something that was likely very meaningless. Wally was used to pointless arguments, he dealt with them all the time from Len and Mick.

"Cisco was entertaining the idea of making types of collars to block meta-human abilities instead of cuffs." Caitlin informed them.

"First you guys want to lock these people in cages, and now you want to put collars on them?" Hartley said hotly, his fury directed at all of them, not just Cisco. "Meta or not, we're still dealing with humans. They're _people_ , not animals."

"I know!" Cisco snapped exasperatedly. "It was just an idea, alright? Can we just drop it already?"

Hartley didn't look very was willing to drop the subject as Cisco was, and Wally must've seen this because he went to stand between the two of them, facing Hartley.

"Len says you need to come home every once and awhile." Wally relayed the message he had been given. He ignored Cisco's sniggers about Len acting like an overbearing mother and continued. "Axel misses having you around. He wanted me to, uh, tell you something."

Hartley sighed and rolled his eyes, seemingly annoyed though Barry thought he saw something akin to fondness in his expression. "What does he have to say this time?"

Wally bit his lip in an attempt to hide the smile that was creeping onto his face. Wally took a deep breath and brought his face to neutral. Then, looking directly at Hartley Wally began signing the simple and familiar phrase that Axel had shown him, complete with the appropriate facial expression.

Most everybody there didn't understand sign language and were clueless to what Wally had just signed except for Hartley, who was actually laughing to himself, and Barry, who couldn't help but grin. Barry didn't exactly understand a lot of sign language but over the years he had spend a lot of time around Len and his group of rogues, and even though Hartley could hear and speak spoken words Axel still liked to sign with him occasionally. Barry didn't understand most signs but he did recognize the phrase that Wally had just done as one of Axel's favorites to use. Axel had been kind enough to tell Barry what it meant.

' _Stop playing smart, Dumbass.'_

If it was anybody else saying that, Hartley would become infuriated, as he often did when people insulted his intelligence or mocked him. For some reason though he always took those kind of insults as the joke they were meant to be when they came from Axel. Maybe it was Axel's personality and the fact that he talked to everybody that way, or maybe it had to do with the fact that Hartley and Axel had always been extremely close, but Hartley never seemed bothered by Axel's teasing insults.

"Well, you can tell Axel to stop complaining so much." Hartley shook his head. Lately Axel had only been using that phrase when he felt like Hartley had been hanging out at the labs too much. "Honestly, I haven't been here that long." Cisco let out a short laugh of disbelief while both Wally and Barry sniggered. Hartley frowned at the three of them, obviously confused at what they found so amusing.

"Dude, you've been here since yesterday morning." Cisco said.

"And before that you were still here for hours on end." Barry added.

"You really haven't been around very much. Axel misses having you around, and everybody's getting sick of him taking it out on them." Wally said, his tone half humorous and half serious.

"Huh." Hartley looked thoughtful for a moment, as if he honestly hadn't realized just how little time he had been spending at home lately. "I guess I owe Axel an apology when this is all over."

"Yeah, that's something I would like to see." Cisco said bitterly. He winced when Caitlin elbowed him. Hartley ignored them.

"Why can't you come back _now_?" Wally frowned, clearly disappointed.

"Trust me, I would love to go home, but I can't yet." Hartley said. "We're really busy here right now. You know that." Wally scowled at the patronizing tone that Hartley was using, but he stayed quiet. "Once I don't have to worry about these idiots blowing everything up while I'm away, I'll come back. I promise."

"Hey!" Cisco protested. "We handled things just fine here before you ever showed up."

"You weren't fighting against an army before I showed up." Hartley pointed out without even looking at Cisco. His whole attention was on Wally. "Axel will understand."

"I'm not so sure that Len will though." Wally said. "You know he doesn't like you being here."

Hartley rolled his eyes. "And he likes you being here even less. What are you even doing here anyways? It's dangerous."

"Actually, Len wanted him here." Barry cut in. Hartley raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Well, no." Barry admitted. "But he didn't want to leave Wally unsupervised, considering he was out trying to recruit people, _again_ ," Barry looked sternly at Wally who, to his credit, looked sheepish about what he had been doing when Barry had found him. "So Len asked me to keep an eye on him while he went to go do something else."

"Why didn't Len just take a few extra minutes to take Wally to Mick?" Hartley asked dubiously, and Barry honestly didn't have an answer for him. Now that he thought about it, why _didn't_ Len do that? Is was what he usually did. Unlike Barry, Wally had an answer to that question.

"I think Len just wanted to be alone for a bit." Wally said unhappily. Hartley narrowed his eyes.

"Why?" He asked. Wally shifted uncomfortably and looked at Barry strangely, almost with anger in his eyes.

"Barry asked Len to find out where some girl lived." Wally said, much to Barry's chagrin. Barry felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment as everybody stared at him.

"It's not what it sounds like." Barry said quickly.

"Really? Because it sounds like you got Snart to stalk some girl for you." Cisco said.

"It's not stalking." Barry said in a too loud voice. "I don't even know who this girl is. I just...There was something about her, and I want to know more. I asked if Len could find her so I could just talk to her. That's it. If she's not interested, I'll back off."

Hartley frowned. "So you're interested in this girl?"

"No...I don't know." Barry said awkwardly. "I think I am?" How could they expect him to explain something he didn't understand himself? Barry didn't exactly know how he felt about this girl, but he _wanted_ to understand it. That was why he wanted to see her again. Maybe if he actually properly met her he would be able to know what exactly he was feeling toward her.

"And you sent _Len_ to find your crush?" Hartley asked in a slightly worried tone. Barry frowned at him.

"Well, yeah, Len's better at this sort of thing than I am." Barry looked between Hartley and Wally, who both looked upset and concerned and he didn't understand why. "What's the big deal?"

"Nothing." Hartley sighed exasperatedly. He looked at Wally. "Is he honestly this oblivious?"

"Oblivious about what?" Barry asked.

"I guess he is." Wally shook his head. Barry was just getting plain annoyed now. What was he so oblivious about? Was it something to do with Len? Was he okay? Barry could tell that these two knew something and they were just refusing to tell him, and that was frustrating him. Len may not be part of his family, but he still considered him a friend and cared about him. If there was something going on with Len, Barry believed he had the right to know about it.

But Wally and Hartley were both extremely stubborn and though Barry kept on bothering them about telling him what was going on with Len they didn't budge in their silence. Finally Barry just decided to give up. He wasn't going to get anything out of them, so what was the point of trying? He would just ask Len himself the next time he saw him.

For the next few hours Barry basically just went through the motions. He helped out where he could, but at the best of times he wasn't really the greatest engineer, Wally was better than him in that sense, and his forensic science knowledge wasn't very useful for what anybody was working on. If it was any other day Barry would be able to offer at least some assistance with whatever inventions or experiments were being worked on, but he was too distracted today.

Barry didn't know whether his mind was on Len or Iris, or even if it was on both. Either way, he was distracted and couldn't think clearly. The others at STAR Labs must have noticed this and for the first while they seemed willing to just leave him to his own thoughts and work around him, but after some time Harrison Wells had had enough.

"Allen, you need to get your head out of the clouds. Now." Harrison Wells said in a harsh tone that made Barry flinch slightly and get defensive.

"That's kinda easier said than done." Barry had no idea how to not be so distracted by his thoughts. To his knowledge the best thing to do was to just ride it out and hope to be more focused tomorrow. "Look, I just have some things on my mind. I can't just turn my brain off and stop thinking about them."

"Well then, you had better find a way to work despite the distractions." Wells said. "You can't let your personal issues get in the way of what has to be done. The people around here see you as their leader," Barry blinked at that, because it was certainly news to him. Why would anybody look at him and see leader material? "So I suggest you start focusing on the matter at hand. None of us can afford to lose sight of what's important right now, least of all you."

Even though Barry hated that he had been scolded like a child, he knew that Wells was right. Barry didn't really believe that all of the others saw him as their leader, but even if they didn't it didn't matter, he still had to focus. If he was going to be part of this fight for freedom, he had to be completely invested in it, not just partially.

The thing is, Barry wasn't completely invested in this. Not really. Today wasn't the only time Barry had let his thoughts wander. If he was being honest with himself, it wasn't just him getting distracted that was the problem. Barry felt conflicted about fighting the meta-humans.

Barry wanted to be freed from Zoom's tyranny as much as the next person, but he wasn't entirely sure that straight up fighting against him was the best plan right now. And what about all of Zoom's followers? Sure, some of them had joined him because of his promises of power and wealth, but Barry was sure that a good portion of Zoom's army was just scared meta-humans who had powers and didn't know if they could ever be accepted by society because of it.

Barry knew just how they felt.

None of the people at STAR Lab's knew this, and Barry didn't intend for them to ever find out, but he wasn't a normal person. Barry had powers of superspeed. He was a meta-human. Just like the people they were fighting against were. Logically Barry knew that his friends would understand and not think any differently of him just because of his abilities, but a part of him was worried that they would. So he kept it a secret.

Only one person actually knew that Barry had powers, and that was Len. Barry still had no idea how he had found out, but somehow he had. Len didn't hold it against him though. Len was the type of person who judged people based on what they did, not on what they could do. Len was more accepting of meta-humans than many people were, in fact, three members of his little rogue gallery had become meta-humans themselves. Mark Mardon, Shawna Baez and Roy Bivolo all had powers of some sorts, though Len made Barry swear that he wouldn't tell anybody about them. Barry had agreed, thinking it only fair that if Len was going to keep his secret, he could keep their secret.

Despite his abilities Barry still felt the desire to take Zoom down. It was fighting his army that made Barry feel more unsure. He felt conflicted about what to do, and obviously it was showing. Barry decided that maybe he should get away from STAR Labs for a bit, go for a walk or something. He needed to think about what he wanted to do, and he had to decide soon, because whether he liked it or not a war _was_ coming.

Now it was just a matter of whether or not Barry was ready for it. If he was really willing to do whatever it takes to get freedom. Even if it meant the loss of freedom for those they were fighting against.

With a lot on his mind to think about Barry put his hands in his pockets and left the labs. He didn't know where he was going, he just knew that he had to get out, get some space. Barry was hoping to leave STAR Labs unnoticed, but just as he left the building a voice addressed him.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Barry jumped at the sly family voice. He turned and looked at Len who was leaning against the outer wall of the building, watching him.

"Len." Barry was beyond relieved to see his friend, and was glad to see that he at least looked okay. Even though Barry knew that Len was good at putting up walls and hiding how he truly felt it was still a relief that he at least _looked_ better than he had before. "Did you find Iris?"

Len's face fell slightly which caused Barry to frown in concern. Had he said something wrong? Before Barry could make things right, or even ask what was wrong in the first place, Len's expression fell back into his usual emotionless look.

"Yeah, I found her." Len said in a small voice that surprised and, honestly, scared Barry. "I can tell you where she is if you want."

"...can you show me?" Barry asked hesitantly. "I'm not very good at directions." That was a lie. Barry knew his way around the city better than almost anybody else, though not better than Len. Honestly though Barry just wanted to spend more time with Len. If he was lucky maybe Barry would be able to figure out what was bothering Len, because now that Barry knew that something was wrong he could see the signs clearly.

Len didn't look very happy about the idea but after looking at Barry's pleading expression for a moment he gave in. "Alright, fine. I'll take you to where she is."

Barry was filled with such gratitude that he forgot for a moment who he was dealing with. Without thinking Barry rushed forward and embraced Len. Barry didn't really consider himself a hugger, but he still liked to use embraces and hugs to show his appreciation when words just didn't cut it. If Barry was with most anybody else it would be fine, but Len wasn't a fan of physical contact, and Barry knew this about him, he had just forgotten and hadn't remembered until it was too late.

When Barry felt Len stiffen at the sudden contact he immediately felt guilty and began to pull away. But then Len surprised him by actually leaning into the embrace and relaxing slightly. It was surprising to say the least for Barry, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Barry tightened the hug. After all, it wasn't very often that Leonard Snart felt comfortable with physical contact at all, and Barry intended to enjoy this while he could.

After a minute Len finally pulled away, his face slightly flushed in embarrassment. Barry didn't say anything about it though, he just grinned. Len rolled his eyes at his enthusiasm.

"Come on, it's a bit of a walk to get to your girl." Len said with the slightest trace of bitterness in his voice.

"She's not my girl." Barry blushed slightly.

"But you like her." Len said plainly.

"I don't know." Barry admitted. "I just, I feel like I want to know her better, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Len said, and somehow Barry knew that he truly did understand.

"So it's not weird?" Barry asked hopefully. "I was worried that Iris might think that I was weird."

"Oh, she will." Len's confidence in his answer made Barry frown and pause as he realized something.

"Oh my god, I'm such a stalker." Barry groaned. Len stopped and looked at him.

"You're not a stalker." Len assured him.

"But you just barely said that she's going to think I'm weird." Barry pointed out.

"So what? I think you're weird and I like you just fine." Len said easily. If Len had said this at any other time Barry would be able to appreciate the sentiment that Len was showing. As it was Barry was too concerned with other things to even notice.

"Well, yeah, but what if _she_ doesn't?" Barry asked. Len blinked in surprise.

"You're worried that she won't like you?" Len smiled ever so slightly when Barry nodded. "Barry, you are the most likable person I've ever met. You're practically a walking ray of sunshine. I don't think it's possible for somebody not to like you."

"But what if she doesn't?" Barry asked again.

Len sighed. "Then you have to learn how to live with it." It wasn't the most encouraging advice ever, but it was the truth, and somehow it was just what Barry needed to hear.

"Okay." Barry took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Let's do this." Barry started walking again. As he went he completely missed the sad, almost heartbroken look that briefly flashed on Len's face. In an instant though it was gone and he lead the way for Barry as if nothing had happened at all.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Yes, I know it's been awhile since I updated this story. I just got caught up in some other stories of mine, and I'm not necessarily looking forward to writing this chapter. It's not that I don't like it, I just don't like one of the characters that this chapter will focus on. Still, I will try my best to not let my biases and dislike towards the character cloud my judgement in the way that I write them. Wish me luck with that.**

Henry had been living a lie for so long, he had almost forgotten what it was like to live a normal life. Many things got easier the longer you did it, but not this. No matter how long Henry had been doing this for, he just couldn't get used to it. It was always a challenge, and Henry was concerned that it wasn't ever going to change.

Henry had little to no stability in his life. Every few years or so Henry would find a place to live where he actually felt like he was free from his past and Iris was safe, but that never lasted long. Whenever he thought he had found a secure living situation something changed and his life was thrown for a loop all over again. The longest period of time in which Henry had actually felt like they could have a life in their current location was two years. Things just always seemed to go wrong.

Henry sometimes felt like he was fighting a constant battle against the universe. A battle that he just couldn't win, but it wasn't one that he could afford to lose. Henry had too much to live for to let life get the better of him. He still had to find his son, Barry.

And he had a little girl to take care of now, even if she wasn't so little anymore.

Iris meant the world to Henry, and he would do anything for her. And it was for her that they couldn't stay in Central City anymore.

Henry may be trying to run from his past, but he never forgot it. He remembered the day he got Iris like it was yesterday, and he remembered that man she had been staying with. The man he had saved her from. Lewis Snart. Henry didn't know much about him and had only actually had two brief encounters with him in his entire life, but even with that little information Henry knew that Lewis Snart was not a man that he wanted to be anywhere near Iris.

Never again.

It had been quite a shock for Henry to see Lewis Snart again after all these years. At first he hadn't recognized the man for who he was. He had just looked like an untrustworthy looking man who looked vaguely familiar and had been interested in Iris. Henry had only realized who Lewis was when Leo had interfered.

Leo had changed a lot in these past thirteen years. He wasn't that scrawny twelve year old boy he had been before. Still, Henry had recognized him almost immediately. It was almost impossible to meet somebody like Leo and not remember him for the rest of your life. Henry had been relieved to see Leo after so long, over the years he had worried quite about about how that kid had been doing without him. That relief was short lived though as Henry soon realized that even though so much time has passed, some things never changed.

Lewis Snart was still a very dangerous man. He still hurt his own kid and Henry knew that if he was given the chance he would do the same to Iris. Henry couldn't let that happen. That man was never going to lay a finger on Iris, and Henry was going to make sure of that. Henry had seen the angry, greedy look in Snart's eyes. For some reason the man wanted Iris back, even though he shouldn't have ever had guardianship over her in the first place.

Henry knew he had to keep Iris away from Snart, and if the only way to do that was by leaving Central City, then so be it.

Henry didn't want to act too rashly if he didn't have to though. The two of them had moved around a lot over the years, and while Henry wasn't necessarily the most observant person in the world, but even he could tell that Iris was getting tired of all of the moving and secrecy. She wanted a normal life, and Henry wanted that for her too. If it was just Snart that they had to deal with, Henry might try to find another way. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Somehow, Detective Joe West was in this city as well. Henry didn't know if Joe would recognize him, or if he would still care, but he couldn't risk it. Henry had known Joe West since before he had gone to prison in the first place, and even back then Joe had believed 'once a criminal, always a criminal'. Henry had no way of knowing if his opinion had changed, but he wasn't going to bet on it.

It would be safest for them to leave. Henry just hoped that Iris didn't take it too badly.

"Dad?"

Speaking of Iris.

Henry turned to face the young woman as she entered the room. Her eyes were filled with concern, but also determination. She could tell that something was bothering him, and she wasn't going to rest until she found out what it was.

"Dad, what's going on with you?" Iris asked in a gentle voice. "You've been off since we got back from town."

"It's nothing, Iris." Henry said easily. "I'm just tired." Iris frowned and narrowed her eyes at him. His tone had sounded sincere enough, and if it weren't for the fact that he always said the same thing whenever he was trying to hide something from her, she probably would have believed him.

"We have to leave again, don't we?" Iris crossed her arms. Henry's guilty and apologetic look was answer enough for her. "Are you at least going to tell me _why_ this time?"

"Iris-" Henry began.

"No, dad, I'm sick of this!" Iris threw her hands to her side in frustration. "What aren't you telling me? Who are we always running from? And who was that man in town?" Henry winced slightly. Of course Iris had noticed the recognition between he and Lewis. And just because she didn't exactly remember Lewis didn't mean that she subconsciously didn't know who he was.

"You don't have to worry about it." Henry said automatically.

"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe I _want_ to worry about it?" Iris asked. "You stress about things all the time, things from your past, and I just don't understand why you insist on hiding stuff from me."

Henry sighed. "You wouldn't understand."

"You don't know that." Iris said exasperatedly. "Maybe I would understand more than you think I would, if you would just _talk_ to me."

"...I can't." Maybe Iris would understand everything, but Henry was far from ready from talking to her about it. Maybe when she was older. Right now though, he didn't think that either of them were ready.

Iris obviously either didn't agree or didn't care. For whatever reason though she wasn't in the mood for fighting. She just stormed outside, and Henry let her. Iris needed time to calm down, he could give her that much.

* * *

Iris absolutely loved her dad, he was the most important person in the world to her, but sometimes he could drive her completely _insane._

He was always hiding things from her, and she hated it. Iris wasn't a scared, trusting little girl now, she was an adult. She wanted to find things out for herself instead of just blindly believing what others told her. Iris had a yearning to know the truth about _everything_ , which was why it always miffed her when her father kept secrets from her.

Which was practically everyday.

She understand _why_ he did it. She could hear the sincerity in his voice whenever he said that everything he did was for her sake. She wasn't stubborn enough to refuse to see that he was just trying to protect her. The thing was, Iris didn't want protection. She could take care of herself, and she just wished that her dad could see that.

Iris sighed and drew her jacket tighter around herself in an attempt to keep out the chill that the evening brought. Night was beginning to fall, and Iris knew that if she wasn't home before dark her dad would totally freak out. He was overprotective in that way. Sometimes it sucked that Iris had a curfew, but she followed it. It wasn't like she had many friends or people to go out with. They moved around _way_ too often for her to ever do anything. The only times that Iris left the house on her own was when she went out for a walk, like she was doing now.

Iris didn't really consider herself the walking type, especially when she didn't really have anywhere to go, but it was a good way to clear her head and just get away from everything for a bit. It gave both Iris and her dad a little time away from each other, which was probably good because two people being around each other, and only each other, 24/7 was bound to get real old real quick. People get on each others nerves, especially if they were are close but spend too much time together.

So even though it was boring, Iris made a point to go out for a walk at least once a week, to keep her stress levels down. Sometimes though she just went out after a fight, because things were just too tense at home.

She still felt tense and stressed, but not as much as she had when she had left, and it was getting late. It was time she head home, even if she still didn't feel like being there. Iris turned around the corner and began making her way home. The streets and sidewalks were completely bare, like they always were this time of day.

Iris' dad was extremely paranoid. Even though they moved around a lot they always stayed in the same type of neighborhood. A place just outside town with not many people living there. The neighborhood was always rundown and probably because of that nobody who lived there trusted anybody else in the area. Iris supposed that her dad liked things specifically that way for a reason. Because all of the distrust amongst the neighbors, everybody just minded their own business. All of them seemed to be too afraid of angering a crazy ax murderer to stick their noses where they didn't belong.

Sometimes it got lonely to always be living in places where everybody avoided each other, but at least it made moving away easier. She never had to deal with the heartbreak of saying goodbye to friends, because she never had any friends in the first place.

Iris had grown so used to never seeing anybody else around when night started falling, so when she saw two young men walking down the street, she became suspicious. She didn't recognize these two, and maybe it was just her dad's paranoia rubbing off on her, but seeing the two of them made her feel extremely nervous.

She wasn't going to let her nerves get the better of her though. Whoever these strangers were, Iris was going to find out.

"Hey, who are you guys?" Iris called out. She had been told many times that she could be pretty intimidating when she was defensive, and she was going to use that to her advantage. She saw one of the two flinch slightly, which just made her more suspicious. Why would he flinch unless he had something to hide? And even though the other man seemed relaxed and not the least bit nervous about being called out by a total stranger, there was just something about his stance that told Iris that this man had secrets.

The two men turned to face her. The nervous man's cheeks turned slightly red when he saw her. "I-Iris." He stammered slightly. Iris narrowed her eyes at him, and his companion looked like he was about to hit himself.

"How do you-" Iris took a cautious step back.

"Excuse him," The other man stepped forward. One of his hands was towards her in a nonthreatening manner, and the other was back towards the nervous man, keeping him back. "He has a tendency to run his mouth."

"What?" The nervous look in the first man's eyes went away slightly as he stared at his friend. "Me? You're the one who talks all the time."

"Yes, but I _think_ before I say anything." The calm, collected man said easily. The first man smiled slightly and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but who are you guys?" Iris asked. She wasn't exactly feeling concerned by them anymore, but she was still incredibly curious.

"Leonard Snart." The calm man said, and somehow the name struck bells in Iris' head. It sounded familiar, but in a strange way. It was as if his name seemed one part dangerous, and one part safe. Leonard tilted his head back towards the other man. "My friend over there is Barry."

"Hi." Barry said somewhat timidly. He looked somewhat embarrassed about earlier. Iris allowed herself to smile slightly at him, because he did look kind of adorable.

"Hi." Iris said in return. She was almost ready to give these two the benefit of the doubt, except for one small thing. "How did you know who I was."

"That was my fault." Leonard spoke up. Iris turned her focus from Barry to him. Now that she was actually looking at Leonard she realized something.

"Wait, I know you." Iris said. Leonard raised an eyebrow at her and he actually looked surprised. "You were in town today."

Leonard sighed to himself. "Yes, I was."

"Do you always jump in and stop creepy men from grabbing young women?" Iris crossed her arms. She wasn't very happy that she had been 'saved' by anybody, she wasn't just some damsel in distress, but Iris was secretly relieved that Leonard had stepped in. She didn't know what it was, but there was something about that man back in town that had reminded Iris of her old childhood nightmares.

Barry snorted to himself and Leonard smirked slightly. "Not exactly."

"He doesn't involve himself with a life that's not already involved in his." Barry said.

"Well, he did today." Iris insisted.

"No, I did not." Leonard said after a moment's hesitation. He almost sounded unsure of himself. "I don't know if you remember, but we used to know each other years ago?"

Iris frowned. "How long ago?"

"About thirteen years." Leonard said. Iris shook her head slightly, because she still wasn't really remembering him. Even if Leonard was telling the truth, she had been only six at the time. She could barely remember anything from back then, and she was just about to tell him so when she got sudden flashes of memory. The flashes were barely anything, but some things stuck out to her.

A frightening man. A boy who acted more grown up than he really was. And then there was that name, Snart. That name just sounded so familiar to her. A name that _didn't_ really bring out a sense of familiarity with Iris though was Leonard. That just sounded wrong to her. A different name came to her head.

"Lenny?" Iris said quietly in disbelief.

"You remember?" Leonard stared at her.

"Not really." Iris admitted. "Just bits and pieces. I remember you, and, uh, your dad?" She wasn't quite so sure about that last part.

"Wait, you know Lewis Snart?" Barry actually sounded somewhat disgusted.

"Of course she knew him." Leonard looked at Barry as if he was an idiot. "I told you she lived with us."

"Right." Barry was looking embarrassed once again.

Lewis Snart. That name set off even more alarm bells in Iris' head than Leonard's had. "Is Lewis Snart that man in town?"

"The one that grabbed you?" Leonard asked. "Unfortunately, yes."

"And he's your dad?" Iris looked at Leonard, who met her gaze easily. "Does he hurt you often?" It was a really blunt question, and possibly not an appropriate one, but Iris wanted answers, which meant that now was not the time to be beating around the bush.

"All the time." Barry was the one who answered for him. Leonard glared at him, but Barry didn't even flinch at the cold, hard look.

"And you still live with him?" Leonard turned his glare toward her, but he didn't deny it, which lead Iris to believe that her assumption was right. For whatever reason, Leonard was still living with his abusive father, which just didn't sound right to her. "Why would you stay?"

"Iris, don't bother asking." Barry said quickly. "Trust me, I've bugged him about this before, and so has Mick," Iris had no idea who Mick was. "Nothing we say works. It just pisses Len off."

"I don't care." Iris snapped at Barry, which made him shut up. She turned back to Leonard. "Why would you want to be around somebody who hurts you?"

"You think this is what I want?" Leonard's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Obviously it has to be, or you would have already left." Iris said logically. Leonard seethed at her words and Barry sighed.

"Don't try to talk about things that you don't understand." Leonard said in a low voice.

"Maybe I would understand if you explained it to me." Iris said.

"I don't have to explain myself to anybody, least of all to you." Leonard turned towards Barry. "I did what you wanted, so unless you have something else that you want from me, I have other things to do." Without even saying a proper goodbye Leonard started leaving.

"Len, wait!" Barry called out, but it did nothing to stop him. Leonard was gone. Barry sighed again. "I hate it when he does that."

"Does he get pouty like this often?" Iris wondered if all men who forced themselves to grow up quickly were this immature.

"That's not fair." Barry frowned at her. "Len has a lot to deal with. He has a hard life."

"Everybody in the world has a hard life." Iris really believed that to be true. In one way or another, everybody had problems. "What's the point of spending all your time moping about it? I say if your life sucks, do something to change it."

Barry shook his head. "You're a strange girl, Iris. Just don't let Len hear you say that. Old friends or not, he _will_ kick your ass if you even imply that his crappy life is his own fault."

"I would like to see him try." Iris said. She wasn't even a little worried about Leonard, a man who _let_ himself get beat up by his own father, threatening her. She was pretty sure she could handle him.

Barry looked at her as if she was crazy. "...No, you don't, but I can tell that I won't be able to convince you of that, so I'm not even going to bother trying." Oh, so Barry was cute _and_ observant. That was good to know.

"I have to be heading home soon." Iris smiled sweetly at Barry. "Walk me home?"

That cute, embarrassed blush returned to Barry's face. "S-sure." He stammered. Barry held out his arm to her, and Iris took it without hesitation. They walked slowly and even though they weren't far from where she lived Iris could tell that she wouldn't make it back before it got dark. Her dad was going to be so mad, but she could live with that. It wasn't very often that Iris got to interact with somebody who wasn't her father, and she wanted to make it last as long as possible.

They talked casually as they went, and Iris found herself liking this Barry more and more with every word he said. He was a sweet guy. It was such a shame that Iris might not be able to see him again after tonight.

Maybe she would try to convince her father to let them stay in Central City for just a little longer. She didn't want to leave unless it was _absolutely_ necessary. She never liked it when they moved somewhere else, but this time was different than the others.

This time around, Iris believed that she actually had a friend or two to lose.

* * *

 **A/N: Not bad, considering half the chapter is about a character from The Flash that I absolutely despise. Yeah, I'm going to say this right now, I really don't like the shows version of Iris West. There actually aren't many girls from the Arrowverse that I actually like. I tolerate a few of them, but only like two. And people wonder why I lean towards the guys in these shows being gay. Maybe if they gave us good females I would pair the guys with some of the girls.**

 **But I digress, I just had to get that off of my chest.**

 **It's weird, but it was only while I was writing this chapter did I realize just how much Leonard is going to take over this story. I mean, yes, he is one of my favorite characters, but I wasn't expecting him to sneak himself in to the story quite this much. Oh well.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Strangely, this chapter was the first to come to my mind. It's what started this whole thing. I was just listening to the** _ **Les Misérables**_ **soundtrack and the music at this point of the story just reminded me of Len, and voilà, the idea for this story was born. Heh, it's no wonder this story focuses, so much on Len, he's the one that started it all.**

* * *

Leonard hated emotions. They were confusing and completely took over one's sense of logic and reason. He rarely understood his own feelings, and didn't even bother with understanding anybody else's. Len liked to think of himself as a logical man, but more often than not his stupid emotions would cloud his judgement and self-preservation, often causing him to do things he would normally know better than to do.

And, as useless and stupid as emotions were they often caused him to do something, even if he _knew_ it would only end in pain for him. Emotional pain.

Arguably the worst kind.

So even though his every instinct was screaming at him to just go home, Leonard lingered. He didn't stay _with_ Barry and Iris, he just stayed _near_ them. He was far enough away as to not be noticed by either of them, but near enough to tell just how _close_ those two were. Leonard couldn't hear their conversation, but he could see the joy filled smile that was on Barry's face.

Whenever Len saw that look he couldn't help but give a small smile in return, because seeing Barry so happy made him happy. It may sound cheesy, but it was true. Leonard didn't experience true happiness in his life. The closest that he got was when he was around Barry.

Leonard didn't know what it was about him, but he felt _good_ around Barry. The younger man saw good in everybody, even if they didn't see it for themselves. But that wasn't all that Len liked about Barry, if anything that was one thing that he _didn't_ like about him. Len was always worried that he would do something that was less than what Barry expected from him, and he would finally see that Len just wasn't a good person and wasn't worth his time.

That was what Len feared, but deep down he knew it wasn't actually true. He had seen for himself that Barry would never do that. Over and over again Len had showed Barry the worst sides of himself, and yet Barry, for some reason, still stayed by his side. He was completely loyal to a fault, and it was around the time that Len had realized that did he also notice his feelings for Barry.

He tried to stop these feelings in their tracks before they grew stronger, but it was no use. These feelings weren't going away anytime soon, and sometimes a small part of Len didn't want them to. Barry brought light to a world that had previously been filled with just darkness, and Len had found that he liked it.

He should have known better though. He should have remembered that light always brings shadows along with it, no matter what.

Barry's bright smile, which usually filled Len with a small but pleasant feeling of happiness now made his chest ache and caused him to feel like he couldn't breath because he knew that the smile wasn't meant for him, and it never had been.

It was only for _her_.

Len had not been naive enough to believe that Barry would ever care about him the same way, but it still hurt to see him only have eyes for somebody else.

Seeing Barry and Iris together and just enjoying each other's company hurt more than any punch in the gut ever could, and yet even though it was almost unbearable Len still watched them. He had no idea why he was staying and making the pain worse instead of leaving and trying to forget that any of this was happening.

No, Len knew why he was staying. It was because a twisting feeling in his gut was telling him to. Len had always had very good instincts, almost in a sixth sense kind of way. Occasionally Len would get a sick feeling in his gut and by now he recognized it as a warning that something bad was going to happen. He didn't know what exactly, but he knew that he wasn't going to like it.

He never did.

And despite the aching feeling in his chest at seeing the two of them with teach other Len really cared about both Barry and Iris. He may not be happy about them being so happy together as if they were a couple, but that didn't change how he felt about them as individuals. He didn't want either of them to get hurt, so Len stayed where he was in order to make sure that no harm came to them.

Len couldn't help but scowl when he saw them stop in front of what he knew to be Iris' house and they just stayed there for nearly fifteen minutes talking and enjoying each other's company. Len was a possessive and jealous person, and he always got upset whenever he thought that somebody or something else was stealing away anything that he thought should belong to him.

It only made it worse when the person stealing from him was somebody that he did actually like, and they weren't even aware that they were _doing_ anything.

Even worse than that though was the knowledge that they weren't stealing from him, because what they had never belonged to him in the first place.

Finally Barry and Iris seemed to call it a night. She went inside, though Len could tell just by watching her that it was with reluctance. Barry, still wearing that goofy grin on his face, turned to leave. Len sighed and decided that he might as well make himself known.

"Well, you two certainly seemed to hit it off." Len drowled. He smirked ever so slightly when Barry jumped in surprise.

"Len, what are you doing here?" Barry's eyes were filled with confusion, and just the slightest bit of lingering fear from the surprise. "I thought you went home."

"Yeah, well, I decided to stick around for a bit, make sure you kept your hands to yourself." Len raised an eyebrow. If there was one thing he had learned over the years about keeping a secret it was that if you hid it behind sarcasm nobody could tell the difference.

"Len!" Barry blushed bright red, as Len had known he would. "Nothing happened! We barely even know each other."

"You seemed to be pretty eager to get to know her." Len said.

"Yeah, but not like _that?"_ Barry looked so embarrassed and flustered at the implication that Len couldn't help but smirk. It was easier to ignore his own feelings when he was busy teasing Barry about his.

"Fine, what's _really_ going on with you and Iris?" Len asked. His tone sounded bored, as though he didn't really care, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Len wanted to know now whether Barry and Iris were planning on actually getting together. If they weren't Len would be spared from a ton of unnecessary heartache. If they were...well, he would rather find out now than to get his hopes up only for them to be crushed at a later time.

"There's not really anything going on between us." Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know, it's complicated."

"Complicated how?" Leonard crossed his arms. They didn't even have a relationship yet. How could it be complicated already?

"Iris _seemed_ interested, but also distant at same time." Barry shook his head. "I don't really understand what she wants from this."

"You don't even understand what _you_ want from this." Len pointed out.

"I don't know." Barry repeated with a shrug. "Maybe we'll wait a few days and then I'll talk to her about this."

"Or you can wait and let what happen happen naturally." Len suggested. Barry looked at him strangely.

"What do you know about relationships?" Barry asked. "You haven't been with anybody before...have you?"

"Not exactly." Leonard confirmed. "But trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Rushed relationships end in divorce, or worse." His parents' marriage taught him that. "My advice is that you make friends first, get dates later." It seemed to be working great for Hartley and Axel...although they were still in the 'just friends' phase. Len sometimes had his suspicions though that they had moved onto being friends with benefits.

And maybe Len _was_ telling Barry to be with somebody that he already knew, and he wasn't exactly doing it with purely innocent intentions. So sue him.

""Len, the whole purpose of dating is to get to know somebody." Barry pointed out. "You don't have to know them beforehand to be in a good relationship. And, like I said, we're not even _in_ a relationship. We're just...I have no idea."

"You're thinking about this too much." Len said. Barry always had a tendency to overcomplicate emotions and feelings. Either that or he oversimplified them to the point that they seemed complicated. "And if you're not together, why are we still talking about this?" Giving Barry relationship advice so he could woe somebody else was _not_ what Len had been planning on doing that evening. "Don't you have something better to do?" Len himself had other things he should be doing, but somehow he thought that standing here talking to Barry about a subject that he absolutely despised prioritized over all of them.

"Yeah, I guess I do." Barry frowned, a conflicted look coming over his face. "Everybody's really busy at STAR Labs. Something big is about to happen, and everybody's getting ready for a fight."

Len furrowed his brow in concern. To his knowledge, both Hartley and Wally were still at S.T.A.R. Labs. "But you're not."

"I don't really want to fight anybody." Barry sighed. "They're meta-humans...like I am. And just because they're working for a bad man doesn't mean that they themselves are bad."

"Nobody said you had to destroy them." Len pointed out. "Whether they're evil or not, you don't like what they're doing, do you?"

"Well, no." Barry shook his head.

"Then do something about it." Len said somewhat harshly. He found it strange that he was encouraging Barry to join in the fight at S.T.A.R. Labs, even though it was dangerous. Then again, he knew Barry, and he knew that the younger man wouldn't be able to live with himself if he just stood to the side and let them deal with danger by themselves if there was something he could have done about it.

Barry blinked and thought for a moment. He then nodded, all signs of hesitation and uncertainty left his face. "You're right." Barry said. He looked at Len. "I should get back to STAR Labs. You want a ride?"

"Thanks, but I'll pass." Len knew that Barry was going to run back to S.T.A.R. Labs, and Len was not a fan of traveling by superspeed. It made him feel nauseous. Besides, he wasn't planning on going to S.T.A.R. Labs. "This isn't my battle."

Barry frowned. "You're a citizen of Central City. You should care about this just as much as any of the rest of us do."

"Well, I don't." Len shrugged. Barry didn't understand, and he never would. Len had been dealing with oppression his whole life, even before Zoom had come around. He was fairly certain that defeating Zoom wasn't going to change that. Why should Len fight for something if nothing was going to change for him?

"Well, if you change your mind you know where to find us." Barry said. There was a second in which Len could see the lightning spark in Barry's eyes before the younger man ran off in a flash. One moment he was there and the next he was gone. That was how his powers worked.

Len sighed and shook his head. He didn't think he would ever get used to Barry disappearing and reappearing in a fraction of a second. And Barry said that _he_ was always the one pulling these disappearing acts.

Len turned back towards Iris' house and he waited. That same twisted feeling in his gut that had warned him of danger was still there, and somehow Len _knew_ that whatever was going to happen was going to happen _here_ , and soon. He just had to be patient until then.

Len was a very patient person. He could easily sit for hours at a time waiting for something specific to happen. His patience came in handy a lot, and it was especially useful when he hung around Barry, who was always late for _everything_. What Len _didn't_ like about waiting was when it was for the unknown. He couldn't take the time to prepare himself, or even anticipate when it was going to happen. Literally the only thing he _could_ do was wait and hope that he would recognize what he was waiting for when it happened.

Sometimes it could be rather difficult to know whether or not the thing he was waiting for was happening. Other times though it would hit him like a freight train. Tonight was an example of the latter.

"What're you doing here?" A gruff, accusing voice that was somewhere between a growl and a shout called out. Leonard stiffened instinctively at the voice because he instantly recognized it. How could he not? "Who are you?"

Leonard stuffed his hands into his pockets to hide the fact that they were shaking and turned around to face his old man. He blinked in surprise when he saw who else was there. Len had expected three or four other guys there, because his dad always took a small group around with him everywhere he went. What surprised Len though was exactly _who_ was part of that group tonight.

"Leonard, what're you doin' here?" Mick looked as confused to see Len as Len was to see him. He felt a bristle of anger. Mick was _his_ partner. Lewis had absolutely no right to drag him along somewhere to be his extra muscle. And what had Mick been thinking, to agree to something like this...whatever 'this' was.

Even more shocking than Mick being there was that standing right next to him was Axel Walker, of all people. The kid was barely even a legal adult, he wasn't a physically capable person or all that bright either. Axel was also _incredibly_ unpredictable and dangerous sometimes. What use would Lewis have for him?

The second Leonard thought of the question the answer came to him. Lewis had recruited Axel for his latest job because he was cheap. He liked a good payoff as much as the next person, but he was too young and naive to realize when he was being ripped off. On top of that Lewis and Axel's own father were old pals. If Lewis wanted something, James Jesse would supply it, even if that 'something' was his own kid. And Axel was too innocent and loyal to his father to even realize what was happening.

It was sick how they took advantage of him like that, and Leonard couldn't help but feel guilty for _letting_ it happen.

 _*Slap*_

Len flinched at the burning feel of flesh against his cheek. He looked his father in the eyes and saw that he was fuming...so what else was new?

"I asked you a question, boy." Lewis said in a tone of voice that said that that slap had been his first and last warning.

"I was out for a walk." Len tilted his head slightly and glanced to the side before making eye contact with his father again. "What about you? I don't remember there being a hit planned for tonight." Len fought hard to keep his tone curious rather than accusing, but still the question was a risky one to ask. He had to know though.

Fortunately his father didn't lose his temper at the question, which was extremely lucky. He just looked annoyed, but at the same time incredibly smug. Len grew concerned when he saw that look. His father being pleased about something was _never_ a good sign. He almost wished that his father had gotten angry instead.

"It was a last minute thing." Lewis said and suddenly Len understood what Mick and Axel were doing there. The two of them were good with spontaneousness and they had been in the area (they always were). Of course Lewis would have dragged them along instead of taking the time to find the members of his regular team.

"What's the hit?" Len asked. It had to be something good for his dad to go for it with little to no planning. Lewis was nowhere near as careful a planner as Len was, but he wasn't usually this reckless.

"I'm just here to reclaim something that belongs to me." Lewis' eyes eyes glance towards the house that Iris had entered just a few short minutes ago. Len freezes. His father wasn't here for a heist, he was here for Iris.

"No." Leonard says without thinking. All eyes turn to him and a small part of him, the weak, abused child part, wants to shrink under their gaze and disappear. Another part of him though, the man who was getting tired of his father ruining his life, refused to back down.

"No?" Lewis took another step towards Len, who automatically took a step back and glared at him. "Use your head, Leo. Turn around and go home."

"No." Len repeated with more conviction than before. "You're not getting Iris." Out of the corner of his eye Len could see Mick furrow his brow in confusion at the old name that he hadn't heard in thirteen years. He couldn't worry about Mick's confusion though. Right now he had to focus on keeping his father away from that girl.

Leonard's continued defiance was not well met. He doubled over when he was hit with a punch to the gut for the second time that day. Len was beginning to think that his father was beginning to lose his edge, because he was usually more original than this. Len usually recovered fairly quickly from hits likes this, but as he had already been hit there earlier that day the spot was already sore so it took a little longer to bounce back from the pain. When he straightened up again he found himself staring down a loaded gun.

Huh. So maybe his father wasn't losing his edge after all.

Len didn't even flinch at the sight of the weapon. By the sound of it Axel seemed to be more concerned for his safety than he was. A quick glance in their direction confirmed that the only reason that Axel hadn't already jumped in and interfered, which would have been an idiotic move, was because Mick was holding him back. Mick was smarter than people gave him credit for. He had realized, like Len had, that he was in no real danger.

"You wouldn't fire that thing." Len said confidently as he glared his father down. "The sound will alert the entire neighborhood that you're here, and the cops will be on you in mere minutes." Less time than that, actually, if Len's calculations were correct, and they probably were. Out in the middle of a quiet neighborhood like this was _not_ a good place for a murder. Len knew it, and he suspected that his father did as well.

Lewis glared hatefully at Len but he did hesitantly lower his weapon. Len felt a brief satisfaction when he saw his father lower the gun. It was the logical course of action, but his father often let his anger win out over his common sense.

His father was never original with his use of weapons, he only ever used guns to shoot people and he never seemed to realize that they also made good blunt objects. Because of this Len had made the mistake of letting his guard down. He hadn't expected his father to swing the gun towards his head. By the time Len realized what his father was doing it was too late.

Len cried out in pain when the gun came in contact with his temple. All of his senses became dulled. He briefly heard a high pitched screech that he thought could either be Axel screaming or just his own ears ringing. He could feel his legs giving out beneath him and before he could stop himself he was falling to the ground. Len's head met harshly with the hard sidewalk and his world went black.

* * *

"-ard. Leonard! Come on man, get up." Len moaned and shifted away from the noise. Without a doubt, waking up was definitely the worst part of getting knocked out. It was a major pain in the ass...or head.

"Shut up, Mick." Len groaned, his voice barely coherent. He still felt completely out of it and the pounding aches in both the front _and_ back of his head were not making him want to get up anytime soon. He just wanted to go back to sleep, that shouldn't be that much to ask for. Apparently though his companions disagreed.

"Len, you're alive!" That was most definitely Axel. Perfect. As if Len's headache wasn't bad enough as it was.

"Of course he's alive, idiot." Mick scoffed at the younger boy. Len could feel Mick's hands at his shoulders and knew immediately what was coming. Len sighed and didn't resist when Mick pulled him into at least a sitting position. He hated the movement, which just made his head hurt even more, but at least he didn't feel quite so pathetic and vulnerable.

"How long was I out?" Len forced his eyes open and was just extremely grateful that it was night because his head hurt enough as it was. He _really_ didn't want to deal with the increased pain that bright light would probably bring.

"Just a few minutes." Mick said, which made Len feel marginally better. He was surprised that such a short period of time had passed though, and slightly wary.

"Where is everybody else?" Len asked, though what he really meant was 'where's my father?'

"They ran off like a bunch of cowards." Axel said proudly. Len narrowed his eyes and looked at Mick.

"It's true. "Mick smirked. "Soon as your old man hit you with that gun this kid here screamed like a freakin' banshee." Len's eyes widened and he looked at Axel in shock, and the kid just grinned broadly back at him. "The people livin' 'round here got kinda suspicious and the others ran off before they could get caught."

"Typical." Len muttered. He had expected as much. He turned his attention fully to Axel, who looked extremely pleased with himself. Len wasn't happy to see the beginnings of a bruise around Axel's eye. "He hit you."

"Huh?" Axel lightly touched a finger to his eye and winced. "Oh, yeah." As if he had completely forgotten about it. Axel didn't look all that bothered by it, but Len felt sick to his stomach. It was bad enough when his father hit _him_ , but to hurt the people that he cared about? That just...it wasn't okay. Especially when they got hurt because of him.

Axel seemed to notice that Len was bothered and he was quick to reassure him. "It's okay though. I can barely feel it." That was probably just because Axel was still so hyped up on adrenalin, like he always was whenever there was danger or rule breaking involved.

"Hey, calm down, Leonard." Mick said. "Axel's dealt with worse before." Len was aware of that, but it didn't make this whole situation any better. If he couldn't protect the people that he cared about, what good was he?

Len felt a sudden wave of determination as he realized that was true. He _needed_ to protect what belonged to him. There weren't very many people that Len actually cared a lot for, that he actually thought of as _his_ , but those select few...he couldn't just sit by and let something happen to them. Not if he could do anything to stop it.

"Come on." Len ignored Mick and Axel's protests and staggered to his feet. "We need to go to S.T.A.R. Labs." Mick and Axel exchange glances.

"Why?" Axel asked.

"Something's going to happen." Len said, even though he didn't really know for sure _when_. All he knew was that he _had_ to be there when it happened. "Hartley and Wally are still there." And so was Barry. Axel's expression fell when he heard that his two best friends were in trouble. Len could tell that he was convinced.

"I thought you didn't want to be 'part of this battle?" Mick commented.

"I don't.' Len honestly couldn't care less about this whole issue of 'meta-humans vs. regular humans'. "But they do. They think this is their fight, which _makes_ it ours." If those idiots were going to insist on risking their lives for the sake of freedom, the rest of them were going to be right behind them, watching their backs.

"I won't be talkin' you outta this one, am I?" Mick sighed, partially annoyed.

"No, you're not." Len answered simply. Mick shook his head.

"Then what're we waitin' for?" Mick's eyes flashed briefly with a protective fiery passion that he always got whenever he was about to follow Len into danger. "Let's go kick some ass."

* * *

 **A/N: And this is probably a prime example of something that as I'm writing it I don't feel like it's all that good or my best work, or I just couldn't be motivated, but then I come back later and reread it and I like it just fine. I won't be able to tell just how fine I think it is until some time has passed, so I guess we'll just have to see.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: This chapter took awhile to write, but I'm pretty pleased with it, considering it's technically a 'battle' scene, and I kinda suck at writing fights. You guys know how Len has kinda been taking over the story? Well, the interesting thing about this chapter is that _Hartley_ was actually the one who seemed to just sneak in. Maybe that's just a sign for me that I should work on the next chapter on my story story about Hartley and Axel next.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Barry ran to Star Labs quickly, not not as quickly as he could have. He didn't even realize he was running slower, but when Barry ran and really tapped into the energy he almost became oblivious to the world he ran past. It was almost as though when he ran he slipped into another world or dimension or something.

This time though, Barry was running slower than usual, maybe he was doing it subconsciously because he still didn't feel so sure about fighting meta-humans and leaving Len. At his lower speed Barry was able to notice things that he would normally miss. Even with his distracted mindset it didn't take Barry long to notice that the streets seemed to be more crowded than they usually wore. It was only when he recognized some of the people loitering around did he realize why.

Cisco kept a database that had information about every meta-human they were aware about. Barry himself wasn't on the list, and neither were Mark or Shawna, because Len had made Barry swear to not tell the others about them. He was sure there were other innocent meta-humans that were living in the city who were hiding what they were, fortunately, they weren't the ones that the people at Star Labs were concerned about. For now they only cared about knowing who their enemies were, and any potential threats would be dealt with when they were out of the woods here.

Barry hadn't been as careful as Hartley or Caitlin to memorize the identity of every single meta-human that, to their knowledge, had joined Zoom. He couldn't for the life of him even name a single meta, either by their real name or the nickname that Cisco had assigned them. Still, Barry _had_ memorized the profiles of the most dangerous meta-human threats, and it was these guys, and others, that Barry saw as he ran down the streets.

A small part of him just hoped that it didn't mean anything, or he was wrong about who these guys were and they were just innocent civilians. Barry knew, though, that he wasn't wrong. These guys were meta-humans, and they were up to something. Something big.

He had to warn the others.

Barry sped up, which made him realize just how slowly he had been running before. Barry was so focused on telling the others of the potential danger that he almost forgot to slow down to normal speed as he got close to the labs. Barry forced himself to a sudden stop and almost fell over because of the imbalance caused by the sudden change in momentum. He quickly regained his footing and headed inside Star Labs, though at a more human speed this time.

Someday he would tell his friends about his powers, and life would get easier for _all_ of them because of it, but for now he needed to keep it a secret still, at least until after tonight. They had to focus on taking down Zoom and his meta-humans, and Barry didn't want to distract his friends with the fact that he had powers. Not tonight. Not until they could actually _afford,_ to be distracted.

Barry walked at a brisk but still relatively normal speed and headed for the inner labs where he knew everybody was. Even before he reached the room Barry could hear his friends' voices from the hallway. Everybody sounded busy at work, which caused him to feel guilty. Hesitation or not, he shouldn't have left these guys here. This battle that they were fighting, this war, it was his fight just as much as it was theirs, and Barry wasn't going to let somebody else fight his battles for him.

As much as it would pain him to do so, Barry would fight against the meta-humans. It was either them or his friends, and there was no way Barry was going to leave his friends in the dust. Barry tried to walk into the room that everybody had gathered in without being noticed, but that plan didn't go over very well.

"There you are, Barry." Wally's voice cut above everybody else's, drawing their attention. Barry sighed. So much for sneaking in unnoticed. "We were wondering where you went."

"I, uh, just needed to clear my head for a bit." Barry said. Hartley rose his eyebrows and frowned slightly.

"Where did you go?" Hartley asked almost accusingly. "Who were you with?"

"I was...look, it doesn't matter, okay?" Barry felt his face heat up. He hated it when he got flustered, because everybody could see it. Hartley looked like he was seconds away from straight up interrogating him (what was his deal?) so Barry decided to quickly tell the others what he had seen on his way in. "Guys, there are meta-humans on the streets tonight."

Everybody froze at this announcement. Harrison Wells was the first to break the silence. "How many were there?"

"I-I don't know." Barry had only caught a glimpse of a handful of them as he had been running. It wasn't like he had paused to count them. "More than normal. They have to be up to something though, right?" He couldn't be making a big deal out of nothing.

"It's certainly a possibility." Harrison Wells muttered thoughtfully.

"It's better to be safe than sorry." Oliver said seriously. "We'll check out these meta-humans and find out what they're up to." He gestured to his team that had come with him from Star City. Barry still didn't understand what these guys were all doing here, fighting to free a city that wasn't even theirs. It wasn't as though he was going to complain though. Team Arrow (Cisco and Felicity had worked together on that extremely original name for the Star City group) definitely brought much needed firepower to their side. As brilliant as everybody at Star Labs was, they were sorely lacking in the fighting department, and they were really lucky that Team Arrow was there to pick up their slack.

"Good luck." Barry said to Oliver. "And keep in touch on the comlinks." Oliver nodded at him and gestured for some of his team to follow him out. As much as Barry appreciated Team Arrow's help, he honestly had no idea who half of the people's names were. Oliver seemed to be switching out his team so often, and everybody was always coming and going, it was really hard to keep track.

Seeing those guys go out uncomplaining to protect a city that they didn't have any attachments too, Barry decided that he _would_ learn their names. It was the very least he could do.

Barry watched as most of the others gathered around the computers. Felicity, who was one of the few people from Oliver's team to stay behind, took the main seat right in front of the computers and began doing...something. Honestly, Barry had no idea what she was up to, he never did. Cisco and Caitlin were also contributing to whatever, and Wally made himself at home peering over their shoulders and adding his own two cents every once and awhile.

"So, Barry, are you here to stay?" Harrison Wells asked.

' _I think so.'_ Barry thought to himself, but he vocalized a much more confident answer. "Yeah, my place is here, I promise."

"Just as long as when you're here, you're actually _here._ " Harrison Wells said in a somewhat stern tone. He went to go join the others and Barry was left wondering, once again, exactly what he could contribute to the team right now. It seemed like he was the only one not doing anything...well, mostly.

"So, uh, Hartley," Barry approached his friend (friend? Yeah, probably). "What're you working on over here?" He found it kind of strange that Hartley was not inserting himself around the computer work with the others. He figured that the reason had to be because he was in the middle of working on something important on his phone.

Hartley looked at Barry strangely. "Uh, a text." Barry felt his face go red again. How was he supposed to know that Hartley had just been texting? Sure, if he was literally anybody else and Barry saw him tapping away at his phone in the corner, Barry would assume that he was just texting. It hadn't even seemed like an option for Hartley though. It seemed like too normal a thing for Hartley to be doing.

"Who are you texting?" Barry rubbed the back of his neck and tilted his head ever so slightly. Why did it feel so weird for him to talk to Hartley? They had known each other for years, but Barry still felt like he barely knew him. "Is it a boyfriend?"

Hartley actually snorted at that question. "No, actually, it's Len."

Barry sighed at himself and shook his head. So much for trying to make the interaction less awkward. "Sorry. I, uh, I didn't know that Len was a texter." Did Len even know how to text? That was a stupid question. _Everybody_ knew how to text.

"He's not." Hartley said with a slight frown. "He just needed to contact me quickly, I guess."

Barry frowned too. "Is something wrong?" It hadn't even been half an hour since Barry had last seen Len. What could have happened during that time?

"I think something's going on." Hartley narrowed his eyes at his phone. "He said that he, Mick and Axel were coming by, and that we should probably expect Shawna and Mark too."

"Wait, they're coming _here?"_ But Len hated being at Star Labs. "Did he change his mind?" Whatever happened to ' _this isn't my fight'_?

"I don't know, but I don't like it." Hartley said irritably. He looked at his phone messages for a minute before glancing at Barry suspiciously. "Where were you?"

"Dude, again?" Why was Hartley so fixed on knowing where Barry had gone? He normally couldn't care less where people went. Hartley even sometimes _arranged_ for them to go somewhere just so he could have more room to himself. "Look, I was just out for a walk, and-"

"With Len?" Hartley interrupted. He turned around his phone so the screen was facing Barry, and right there was a message from Len sent just a few minutes ago that was asking if Barry had made it back alright. "What were you doing with him?"

"We weren't _doing_ anything." Barry protested. Where were these hostile accusations coming from? "He was just introducing me to Iris."

An annoyed and slightly pained expression came across Hartley's face. "You asked _Len_ to be your _wingman?_ "

"What? No!" Only Hartley could make Barry get defensive about having a wingman, which Len _wasn't_. "He was just helping me out."

Hartley didn't look convinced. "You're such an _idiot,_ Barry." Hartley seemed to decide that he had had enough of the conversation, and Barry. He pocketed his phone, glared coldly at Barry, and stormed angrily out of the room, leaving everybody else confused.

"What was that about?" Cisco asked from near the computers.

Barry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't even know." He didn't think he would ever understand Hartley, and he wasn't all that happy about it. It wasn't as though Barry hoped that they could be best friends or something like that, but considering Hartley was a regular at Star Labs and was part of Len's little group, Barry had a fair amount of interaction with him anyways. It was just so weird to be around somebody so often and still not know anything about them.

Wally actually seemed to be the only person who looked concerned instead of just confused. "Should somebody go after him?"

"Nah, it's fine." Cisco waved away the issue, as if this was like any other time that Hartley got upset about something, but it wasn't. Hartley wasn't the type to storm off when he was angry, he was the kind of person who began arguing passionately about what he thought you were doing wrong. For some reason though he hadn't done it this time around, and Barry wasn't sure if that was significant somehow. He was half tempted to go and find Hartley, to talk this out, but considering he was the one that Hartley was mad at, that didn't seem like such a good idea. Barry would really rather not get yelled at today, especially if by the end of it he _still_ didn't understand what Hartley's issue with him was.

Barry decided to do something useful while he waited for something to happen. There was enough people crowded around the main computer as it was, but Barry was fine with that. He wasn't as much of a technological genius as those guys were anyways. Instead Barry entered one of the adjoining rooms and sat himself in front of a smaller but still very high tech computer.

Barry got on the meta-human data base that Cisco had set up awhile ago. All meta-humans that they knew about were documented here. Barry ignored the names and even the nicknames that were underneath all of the profiles. He was worried that if he bothered to know the meta-humans by their names that he would just be reminded just how human they were.

He couldn't think of meta-humans as just regular people right now. If he did he might just lose all his nerve and refuse to fight them. Right now the meta-humans were their enemies, and nothing more. That was how it had to be right now.

Barry went through the profiles and found which meta-humans he had recognized on his way to Star Labs. He needed to know just what kind of abilities they might have to deal with here. They could be people with just regular nonviolent powers...or, as regular as powers could be. They could just be scouting for Zoom and be no real threat.

Or they could have deadly abilities, and if that was the case then they were probably in much deeper trouble than they were ready for.

Barry scanned from page to page of meta-humans, and he did not like what he saw. Everybody that he had recognized seemed to be one of the meta-humans with the more dangerous abilities. They weren't the kind of people that Zoom would send to check things out, and they certainly weren't the kind of meta-humans who would hang out around town together without trying to tear each other to pieces.

The only reason these guys would be cooperating with each other was if they were following the orders of somebody that they feared and respected.

Barry was about to go tell the others that they might have some trouble on their hands when Oliver's voice came over the comlink.

"I hope you guys have some of those inhibitor cuffs ready over there, because we've got some hostile meta-humans." Oliver's voice came across as angry, which tended to happen when he was feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Barry cursed under his breath and quickly returned to the room where the others were. Why hadn't any of them thought to have Oliver take at least a few inhibitor cuffs with him? It had been an idiotic move on their part.

"Guys, we've got a problem." Barry said, though his words were unnecessary. His friends had heard the message over the coms just as well as he had.

"We know." Cisco said testily. He and Felicity were tapping away on their computers, probably tracking on to Oliver's exact location through the tracker they had installed on all of their comlinks. "We need somebody to get some links to them, and fast."

Now, fast was something that Barry could do. "I'll do it." He volunteered. Even if his friends didn't know about his speed they all knew that he was still the best option to go out there right now.

"I'm coming with you." Hartley announced as he came back into the room. Barry frowned.

"You want to come with me?" Why would he want to do that? "I thought I was an idiot."

"Oh, you are." Hartley said matter-of-factly. "But I know how to work the cuffs better than you do." That was...true, actually The cuffs were created by Hartley and Cisco, after all. Of course he would know best on how to use them.

"Alright." Barry agreed, because they would just be wasting time by arguing about this. "Let's go." Hartley was already carrying a bag that held their inhibitor cuffs (including their prototypes, which didn't have nearly as long lasting a battery). Hartley was also wearing his gloves that could emit a sonic wave, which could come in handy. As much as Barry didn't exactly get along with Hartley, he had to admit that he certainly came prepared.

"Be careful, Barry." Caitlin frowned in concern. Barry grinned encouragingly at her. He could take care of himself.

"You too, Hart." Wally said in a teasing, but also somewhat serious tone. "Len will kill you if you die out there."

"Nobody's going to die out there." Hartley slung his bag over his shoulders and without even saying a proper goodbye began to walk out of the labs.

"We'll see you guys soon." Barry promised before following after Hartley, who was pointedly trying to ignore him again. "So, why are you really coming? You have leaving the labs."

"Things are too crowded here for my taste." Hartley said. "Besides, I got another text from Len. They're in the same area as Oliver is." Which meant they were in the same area as the meta-human's are.

"Shouldn't you warn Len?" Barry asked. Surely he would know to stay away from where danger is. Hartley frowned and looked at him exasperatedly. Barry remembered exactly who they were talking about right then.

"Yeah, we should probably hurry." Barry sighed. Len could be downright careless sometimes, and so could Mick and Axel. They needed to get to them before they decided to do anything stupid. Barry glanced over his shoulder to make sure none of the others were watching before picking up Hartley (He was going to get yelled at for that in a few moments) and ran off.

Thanks to his superspeed they arrived at their destination in just a few seconds. Barry stopped and quickly put down Hartley, and it was a good thing he did because moments later the intellect lurched forward and promptly began to vomit. Barry winced sympathetically. He knew that to anybody who wasn't a speedster moving at high speeds could cause severe nausea and dizziness. Thankfully the feeling was usually just temporary and a minute later Hartley was straightening up again.

"Don't _ever_ do that again." Hartley spat.

"I got us here quickly, didn't I?" For possibly the first time Barry was glad that there were a handful of people that were aware of his abilities. If Hartley hadn't already known about them Barry wouldn't have even thought about using his speed to get them here so fast. "Come on, let's see if we can find the others."

Barry hadn't brought them to the middle of the fight, things would be just a bit too chaotic for that, but they were close to it. So close that they could actually hear the fight going on about a block away.

Hartley shoved the bag of inhibitor cuffs into Barry's hands and adjusted his gloves. "Let's just hope nobody gets themselves killed before we get there."

"I thought you told Wally that nobody was going to die?" Barry said.

"Of course I told him that, he's just a kid." Hartley looked at Barry seriously. "We don't know how many metas are out there, or exactly what powers all of them have. I'm just preparing for the worst."

"The worst." Barry muttered. He had tried so hard to not even think about possible horrible outcomes from tonight's confrontation. If he even began to think about what could happen he would never be able to find the courage to move his feet to prevent it from happening. "Let's just get this over with." The sooner they could get these guys off the streets, the better.

Barry took a couple of inhibitor cuffs out from the bag and handed them to Hartley. Barry was pretty sure that he would be the one to be using the cuffs the most, but he figured it wouldn't be smart to leave Hartley completely empty handed. Besides, most of the cuffs that Barry gave to Hartley were the prototypes, which worked differently than the newer ones, and Barry wasn't completely sure he knew how to get them working.

Hartley took the cuffs without argument and ran off towards the fighting with Barry following right behind him. He kept on telling himself that he could do this, that nobody had to get hurt and they could all go home safely. Barry's little reassuring mantra only worked up until they were able to see the fighting going on, and Barry froze in his tracks.

There were a number of people, members of Team Arrow, meta-humans, and even innocent civilians who must have just been caught up in the fight because they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, injured on the ground, or worse. Barry felt like he was going to be sick. Some of the injured people weren't moving, and Barry got the terrible feeling that some of them wouldn't be moving ever again.

Barry didn't know what he had had in mind when he thought of a battle with the meta-humans, but it certainly wasn't this. He hadn't thought that this would end up in an actual _war_. Barry stayed frozen where he was until an arrow came shooting right past him. An instant later an unknown voice gave a sharp cry of agony. Startled, Barry turned around to see what must have been a meta-human with an arrow in his shoulder.

"Barry!" He flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder, but relaxed when he turned to see Oliver looking furiously concerned. "What were you thinking, just standing there? You might as well paint a bullseye on your back."

"I...Sorry." Barry was feeling pretty shaken up. Had that meta-human been about to attack him? Barry could have been in real trouble if it wasn't for Oliver's interference. "Thanks."

"Look, I don't know how you got here so quickly, but we'll talk about it later." And by Oliver's expression, Barry knew that they _would_ talk about it. "But if you're going to be here, you better get your head out of the clouds before you get yourself killed."

"I will." Barry said. "Thanks." Oliver nodded and ran off to shoot more metas with his arrows. Barry seriously hoped that Oliver was at least trying to make his shots non-lethal. He hated how Oliver, and practically everybody else on his team, insisted on using such dangerous weapons.

Barry heard a groan of pain behind him, reminding him that the wounded meta-human was still there. Acting on instinct Barry took one of the pairs of inhibitor cuffs that he had and he slapped them around the guy's wrists before he could recover from his shot to the shoulder. Barry felt kinda bad about using the cuffs when the guy was hurt, but considering he had probably just tried to attack him, Barry believed that they were even.

Barry took a deep breath and scanned the crowd. He was not happy that there was so much fighting going on, but maybe he could do something to stop it. He did have cuffs that could block meta-human's abilities. If they couldn't use their powers, then they might just stop fighting, and if the metas weren't posing a threat to the citizens, than Oliver and his team would back off.

Determined now, Barry began to run. Not with superspeed (He didn't want anybody, metas or Oliver) to know about his super speed. But he could still run fairly quickly even without his speed, and Barry had practice with dodging in and out of crowds. Barry began to put cuffs on meta-humans left and right, mainly focusing on the ones who were fighting his friends or innocents. Other than that, he didn't pay much attention to what was going on around him.

Barry was jerked out of his own little world when he heard very familiar almost maniacal laughter. If he wasn't familiar with who exactly that laugh belonged to he would be very unnerved by it.

"Hey, Barry." Axel cried out rather cheerfully. Without even waiting for a reply the younger man was running off to join Hartley.

"He's having way too much fun with this." Barry shook his head in amazment.

"He always get's like this." Len's cool voice said, filling Barry with relief. He didn't know why he was so glad that Len was here, but he was. "Mick thinks he's an adrenalin junkie."

"Hey," Axel's voice cut in. Apparently he hadn't run off too far yet, but it was still close to a miracle that he could hear them with all the noise that was going on. "I have to get my fix from somewhere, right?"

"Trust me, Axel, the last thing you need is to be on drugs again." Len shouted. Barry found it amazing that they could banter so casually when they were literally in the middle of a battle. Maybe this was just their way of coping.

"What are you guys doing here?" Barry asked as he cuffed another meta-human. He was unbelievably grateful that Cisco and Hartley had figured out how to get the cuffs to snap on so easily. He wouldn't be able to do this so easily if it actually took time and effort, as well as a fair amount of sitting still on the meta-human's part.

"What does it look like we're doin'?" Mick grunted as he punched some meta-human in the face, knocking him out. Barry tossed him a pair of cuffs and marveled at just how many pairs they had brought. Cisco and Hartley had been really busy. "We're savin' your asses."

"What Mick means is that we're here as backup." Len said easily.

"I thought you didn't want to be part of this fight." Barry said curiously.

"I don't." Len confirmed quickly. "But you do. I'm not just going to leave you, Hartley and Wally out to dry just because I disagree with you. Besides, if I'm here I'll be able to rub it in your face when this is all over and you see that I was right all along.

Barry grinned. "It's good to have you here, Len." He said sincerely.

Len gave him a small smile in return. "There's no where else I would rather be."

"Axel!" Hartley's voice screamed out over all the other noise. Just by his tone Barry could tell that something was seriously wrong.

"Damnit." Len swore under his breath. It seemed he had heard the panic in Hartley's voice the same as Barry had. Both of them searched the crowd of people to find their friends, it was much easier to hear a scream in a crowd than it was to find the one who had screamed. Barry's eyes eventually fell upon Hartley and Axel, and it didn't look very good.

Axel must have been hit by a meta-human or something, because he seemed to be knocked out cold. It rattled Barry a bit, to see energetic, ever-moving Axel lying unmoving on the cold ground. Hartley was kneeling next to him, desperately trying to get him to wake up. Barry didn't know if Axel was just unconscious or something worse. Based off of Hartley's reaction he didn't know much better.

Barry dropped the bag with the remaining inhibitor cuffs and followed Len as he ducked through the fighting meta-humans and odd members of Team Arrow to get to Axel. Barry was the first to reach Axel and he immediately knelt down and felt for a pulse. After a few tense moments he found one. It was slow and unsteady, but at least Axel was alive. But they needed to get him back to Star Labs to get him checked out, just in case.

Barry turned and looked at Len to tell him the good news. He was confused though when he saw that Len's expression wasn't one of relief or concern, but one of absolute terror.

"Barry, look out!" Len suddenly pushed Barry harshly to the side. Before he could even gather himself he heard a sound that seemed to make his blood run cold. The sound of Leonard Snart screaming in agony. Barry could hear the pain in his voice, and it was the worst sound that he had ever heard in his life. He barely heard Hartley's shout of rage or registered that he had used his gloves to blast away...somebody.

It was as if Len and Barry were the only people in the world at that moment.

"Len?" Barry turned towards his friend and frowned. Len did not look very well at all. There was an angry black mark on his hand and lower arm, which Barry could only see because at one point his sleeve had ridden up a bit. The mark looked eerily familiar, and it made Barry sick to his stomach. Something was very wrong.

Len was cradling his hand to his chest, his face twisted up in pain. If Len hadn't already been kneeling on the ground Barry was sure he would have fallen over already. As it was he was still swaying ever so slightly and Barry was worried he would end up falling over anyways. Not knowing what else to do Barry grabbed Len and just drew him closer before he could fall and hurt himself. Len usually despised close contact, but he didn't even put up a fight. He just let Barry have his desperate hold on him.

If the circumstances were any different, Barry would be ecstatic that Len was allowing such intimate contact. Right now though, it just filled him with worry. Why wasn't Len resisting at all?

"What's wrong?" Barry asked when he felt Len shudder and actually draw closer to him.

"Barry." That was Hartley's voice, but his tone sounded all wrong. Hartley was always so full of confidence, so why did he sound all but broken right now. "The meta-human that got him has powerful poisonous abilities. It has already started infecting him."

Barry frowned. Len had only gotten hurt because he had shoved Barry out of the way when a meta-human was about to attack him. This was all his fault. Barry had to do something to make this right. "We need to get him to Star Labs." He started to get to his feet, but Hartley put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Don't." Was all at Hartley said. Barry looked at him with wide disbelieving eyes. "It won't do any good. We haven't...Barry, there's no cure for this meta's poison."

Barry's world completely froze. It couldn't be true. It just...it just couldn't. "What do you mean?"

"Y-you know what he means, Barry." Len's voice was weaker than it usually was, but he was trying so hard to sound normal. Len pulled slightly away from Barry and looked at Hartley. "How long?" He asked.

Hartley's expression was grim. "A few minutes. The poison spreads quickly, and once it reaches your heart…" He trailed off, but the got the gist of it. Barry was absolutely horrified and a feeling of dread came over him. This couldn't be happening. He wouldn't let it happen.

"We-we have to do something." Barry said desperately. "We can't just-"

"Barry." Len grabbed his hand. "It's okay." And the horrible thing was, Len actually did look strangely okay with this, and that wasn't right. None of this was okay, or fair.

"I can't just sit by and do nothing." Barry objected. He didn't even bother to hide the fact that there were tears gathering in his eyes. He didn't care if he cried.

"You're not doing nothing." Len said quietly. "You're here, aren't you? That's enough."

No, dammit, it wasn't enough, but there was they were right, there was nothing else he could do about it. The least, the _least_ he could do was be here with Len until...yeah. Barry desperately wanted to leave to get help, but how could he when he knew that secretly one of Len's worst fears was dying alone and unloved (Len had been very, _very_ drunk when he had revealed that information, and Barry hadn't mentioned it since).

"There's something else you can do." Hartley said so quietly that Barry barely heard it, and Len probably missed it entirely. "It won't save him, but-"

"What is it?" Barry was willing to do anything. Hartley glanced uncertainly at Len, who had his eyes closed and was wincing in pain. Hartley then leaned forward and whispered two words in Barry's ear.

" _Kiss him."_

"What?!" Barry was taken aback by the request, but Hartley looked so serious. "What will that do?"

"More than you've ever thought." Hartley said. "Please, Barry, it would mean a lot."

Barry wasn't so sure about that, but hey, what did he know? Hartley was the one that lived with and was practically raised by Len, and it wasn't like Barry had any better ideas. But if this was just Hartley fulfilling some weird fantasy or something, Barry was absolutely going to kill him.

But because Barry didn't have a better, he decided he might as well give it a try. It wasn't as though Len was in any state to kill him over his. Barry leaned forward and hesitantly pressed his lips against Len's.

It wasn't any magical moment, but it also wasn't something that filled him with absolute disgust. It was just...something. Barry felt completely neutral about the kiss. When he broke it off though one look at Len's face told him that the neutral feeling wasn't mutual. It was a little harder to tell exactly how Len felt about it though. Barry recognized confusion on his face, but the other emotions were a little harder to recognize.

"What was that for?" Len asked weakly.

Barry answered honestly. "Because you deserve it."

Len smirked painfully. "That's debatable." But he didn't argue about it further than that. To Barry's surprise Len actually seemed somehow more content than he had been before. Maybe Hartley really had been onto something. Barry wondered how he had known.

Actually, now that he thought about it Barry wondered how he _hadn't_ known. Had Len actually had feelings for him? If so, just how long had this been going on for? Why hadn't he said anything? No, Barry knew why Len hadn't said anything. He hated talking about his feelings, he somehow thought they made him weak. And then there was the whole issue that Len had with never thinking he was good enough for anything. Regardless of the reason, Len was still an idiot.

And Barry would always be an oblivious jerk, just like Hartley said he was.

"I'm sorry." Barry said quietly. Len immediately started shaking his head.

"Don't be." Len shifted slightly and winced in pain as he did so. The poison was spreading even further. Barry was tempted to roll back Len's sleeve so he could see how far it had progressed, but he didn't. Len liked to keep his arms covered at all times and Barry thought that it would be a kind of betrayal to roll them back now. Besides, he didn't want to see evidence of just how little time they had.

Len groaned in pain and moved slightly. Barry began to shift into another position that maybe they would both find more comfortable. When he gave the slightest movement though he felt Len weakly and yet firmly grab his wrist.

"Don't leave." The plea was quiet, but also somewhat desperate. Barry stilled and returned the grip.

"I'm not going anywhere." Len seemed to relax slightly at those words.

Len gave a small smile and Barry was once again struck by just how ready and okay with all of this he seemed. Barry himself felt like a total wreck, like one small change would cause him to just break down. Len on the other hand seemed fine, content even. Barry liked to think that the poison was just affecting Len's mind or something, because he didn't want to think about his friend being so okay with dying.

The next few minutes crawled by slowly. Barry couldn't do anything but wait and watch as Len's life drained away. As the poison ate at him. After what felt like forever, and yet entirely too soon Barry felt Len's hand, which had been holding his so tightly, become lax.

"Dammit." Barry clutched at Len's hand tighter, as if that could somehow bring him back. "Dammit, Len, don't do this."

"Barry, he's gone." Hartley's voice was quieter than it usually was. Barry wanted to get mad at him for it, yes, he could see that Len was gone now, but he couldn't. Barry just felt drained, and somewhat numb. He felt...absolutely nothing.

"Kid," Barry didn't even flinch when he unexpectedly felt a rough hand grab his shoulder. He didn't have to turn around to know that it was Mick. "We gotta go."

Go? Go where? Did they absolutely have to leave? Could he just stay here? Barry didn't want to leave Len, even if...he couldn't leave him.

"Come on, kid, we gotta get out of here." The grip on his shoulder tightened and suddenly Mick was pulling him to his feet. Barry's legs wouldn't support him, or he just couldn't find the motivation to get them to work properly. Fortunately Mick was there to hold him up when his legs failed him.

"You really gonna make me do this on my own, Scarlet?" Mick sounded irritated, and usually Barry took that as a sign that it was time to stop messing around with him. Right then though he didn't. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way." And without warning Mick adjusted his grip on Barry and was hoisting him up onto his shoulders. Barry didn't care enough to even think about complaining.

Mick looked back at Hartley, who was still kneeling next to the others. "Come on, it's not safe here." Huh, something must be seriously wrong for Mick to say that it was to dangerous to stay. He loved danger and risks.

Hartley looked unsurely at his two friends who lay unmoving in front of him. "We can't just leave them."

"We don't have a choice." Mick growled. "There's trouble comin', and we gotta get outta here before he comes. If you think you can carry Axel and still keep up, be my guest. If not you gotta leave him."

"But…" Hartley looked down at his best friend. He knew that he couldn't carry him for very long without slowing them down, but he didn't want to just leave him for dead.

"We'll come back for him later." Mick promised in a more gentle tone. "But right now, we gotta go." Hartley hated it, Barry knew that Hartley hated it more than anything, but they both knew that Mick was right and he didn't like the circumstances any better than they did.

Mick adjusted his grip on Barry so he could have a free hand. Mick pulled Hartley to his feet and practically dragged him away. Hartley and Barry both felt their hearts breaking with every step they took, but still they let themselves be dragged and carried away by Mick, because they had no choice.

They had no choice but to leave their injured and dead friends behind them.

Barry's soul filled with dread when he realized that even though they had lost a lot, the war had only just begun.

* * *

 **A/N: Is it weird that I don't really feel bad about killing off one of my favorite Arrowverse characters? Maybe it has to do with the fact that Len died in Legends in Tomorrow, so I've kinda come to terms with the fact that he's dead...of course, that just means that I'll have to adjust to him being alive all over again when the show eventually brings him back, but I'll jump over that hurdle when they finally give it to us.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Yeah, it's been awhile since I've had a chapter, and the last one didn't exactly end on a good note. The thing is, things aren't exactly going to be picking up. In case you haven't figured it out, this is a** _ **sad**_ **story, and it's only going to get worse. If you're ready for that, and I hope you are, please enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Star Labs was supposed to be a refuge. It was the one place in the world where Wally felt completely safe and secure. He had started to think that nothing could go wrong here. That, somehow, Star Labs was immune to the pains of the world, that it was some magical safe haven. A sort of sanctuary of science or something.

Even with all of the trials and sufferings Wally had had to deal with in his life, he still felt a very rude awakening when Mick, Barry, and Hartley stumbled their way back to the labs. All three of them looked traumatized, and when Wally didn't see Len or Axel come in right behind them, he suddenly knew why.

Wally had no idea what Len or Axel had been doing out in town, or Mick, for that matter. Len was an observant person, he had probably known that something big was about to happen and he would take the necessary precautions. Len didn't think this was his fight, so Wally hadn't thought that he would involve himself, let alone any of the others. What had he been thinking?

...No, Wally knew what Len had been thinking. He had just been trying to protect what he cared about. It was the same thing he had been doing his whole life. Len had practically raised Wally, and if there was one thing the teenager had learned about his friend/guardian, it was that while he cared about himself (a lot) he cared about his close friends even more.

Wally understood that, but he still hated it. From what he had heard, Len had saved Barry's life. That was great and all, but where did that leave them now? Barry had barely moved for two days, too overcome with guilt to do anything. Hartley was acting like even more of a dick than usual and probably wouldn't stop until he learned about the fate of his best friend. Mick hadn't stopped drinking and he had nearly set fire to the labs five times already.

As for Wally, well, he was feeling anxious. He _needed_ to get out and do something, because nobody else was. And if Wally didn't do something to distract him from the pain, it would probably end up overwhelming him like it had done with Barry. There were too many people that were incapacitated as it was, whether it be from injury or emotional/mental instability. Wally couldn't let himself be useless like the others. He had to do something to help.

Even though Wally was smarter than most other kids his age, he was still just thirteen. He wasn't a genius and he knew that there wasn't a lot that he could do to help out around the actual labs themselves, so he did what he could to help the others out in any way that he could.

Wally spent a good amount of time with Hartley, because even though he wasn't his best friend like Axel was they were still fairly close. Wally was definitely closer to Hartley than anybody else at Star Labs. Wally would just hang around Hartley, and even though the young man seemed annoyed by his presence Wally knew that he appreciated it.

He didn't _just_ spend his time around Hartley though, because he wasn't the only one who needed to be distracted. Wally also checked up on Mick a couple of ties every day. Even though Len had been the one to mostly raise Wally, Mick had still done a fair amount of taking care of him, and now he was just returning the favor. The only thing Wally could think of doing for Mick was to drag him away from his alcohol for at least a few minutes. Wally accomplished this by convincing Mick to show him some more mechanical techniques. Mick wasn't an inventor like Hartley was, but he knew his way around an engine and had been the one to get Wally interested in engineering in the first place.

Unfortunately, both Hartley and Mick were antisocial by nature. Even when they were in the company of people that they liked, like Wally, they could only take companionship for so long. Thus, Wally found himself with plenty of time to himself, and since he still wanted to feel useful he ended up helping out Shawna.

Mark and Shawna had arrived the day before, and even though Mark didn't have much to do at Star Labs, Shawna immediately made herself busy. She was interested in becoming a doctor, and even though she hadn't gone to any medical school yet she still new a lot about first aid. She had been putting that knowledge to good since the second she had arrived at Star Labs. A lot of guys from Oliver's team had gotten injured in the fight. Shawna and Caitlin had been doing everything they could to help them, and Wally was doing whatever _he_ could to help the girls.

Even though Wally was kept busy with splitting his time between helping Shawna and keeping Mick and Hartley from spiraling out of control, he still found some time to visit with Barry. The young man was...well, he really wasn't doing very well. Even though Barry hadn't known Len for as long as Wally and the Rogues had, he seemed to be the one most affected by his death. Barry was taking it really hard, and even though his friends at Star Labs wanted to help him, they didn't understand how deep the pain was.

They didn't know that Barry's guilt wasn't _just_ over the fact that Len had died.

"I should have known." Barry said desperately for the tenth time when Wally came to check up on him again. "How could I be so blind for five years? It was so obvious."

"Of course it's obvious now." Wally sat next to him. "You know about it, so of course any clues from before seem super obvious now."

Barry frowned and Wally knew he was thinking of the numerous times in the past when he had done something, commented on how good a friend Len was or talked about his latest romantic interest, and had completely missed or not understood the flash of pain in Len's eyes.

"I wish he had just told me." Barry said. "I'm not saying I could have returned his feelings, but at least I could have, I don't know, not hurt him so much with my carelessness."

"Len didn't tell you because he knew you." Wally looked at the ground and frowned. "He knew that you would probably get all upset and feel guilty about not feeling the same way about him, because that's the kind of person that you are. He didn't want to hurt you." And he also didn't want to risk hurting himself even more, but Wally really didn't think that Barry needed to know that part.

"I hate this." Barry said, and that was something that Wally could relate strongly to. "I feel like I keep on losing everybody that I care about. I haven't seen my dad since I was a kid, my mom died, and Len…"

"I know the feeling." Wally said quietly. He had never known his own parents, and had seen a couple of close friends, basically family members, die. He knew the feeling of overwhelming hopelessness and despair and the knowledge that nobody was safe from death. The thing was, Wally had gotten through those times because he had so much support from his friends. They were suffering just as much as he had been, and they had all helped each other through it. That was what friends were for.

That was why Wally was trying to get Barry to open up to him, because even though the young man said he just needed space Wally knew that that was the last thing he actually needed. He couldn't keep his feelings all cooped up inside, he would just drive himself crazy. Barry needed to let his friends help him.

"You know, you haven't lost everyone." Wally said.

"Yeah." Barry's frown turned thoughtful. "I know." He seemed to be thinking about something, and even though Wally had no idea what was on his mind he was pretty sure he wouldn't like it. "Hey, do you think you can sneak out of here unnoticed?"

"Probably." Wally frowned, unsure of where Barry was going with this, or even what he actually meant. Did he mean sneak out without getting noticed by the people at Star Labs, or sneak out and roam the streets without being caught by the Metas? Either way, Wally was fairly confident that he could do it. People typically overlooked thirteen year olds. "Why?"

"I have something I need you to do." Barry reached into his pocket and took out what looked like a letter. Wally winced slightly when he saw the name on the envelope.

"Iris?" Wally looked at Barry in disbelief. "You're _still_ thinking about her?"

"Not exactly." Barry's eyes flashed with pain. "Look, I just...I'm going to stay here and help fight the Meta humans. After Len...well, I'm starting to see that I may not make it out of this alive." Wally felt a cold chill come over him. Did Barry think he was going to die? "I know I don't know Iris that well, but she told me that she's never had many friends. If something happens to me she deserves to know why I stopped talking to her."

"Why can't you tell her yourself?" It would probably mean much more to hear this kind of news in person. Besides, Wally _really_ didn't want to leave everybody at Star Labs. He wanted to be here to help in case something else happened.

"I _can't_ leave." Barry said desperately. "If something happens…"

So Barry was feeling the same way that Wally was. "Yeah, I get it." Even though he still didn't want to do it, Wally took the letter from Barry and pocketed it. As much as he hated to admit it, he probably would be the best bet to do this. Barry may had superspeed, but he wasn't nearly as good at sneaking around as Wally was. Besides, though Wally would never admit this out loud, Barry could do more to help out at Star Labs if something were to happen than Wally would.

"Thank you." Barry's voice was filled with so much relief, and Wally began to think that the delivery of the letter was only part of it. Knowing Barry, he had probably just asked Wally because he wanted the younger boy out of Star Labs and away from danger, at least for a bit. As much as Wally hated being treated like a kid who couldn't take care of himself, he couldn't get bring himself to get mad at Barry for this. Besides, it wasn't as though Wally had to _stay_ away. As soon as he had given Iris her letter, Wally was going to come straight back here, whether Barry liked it or not.

As Wally was getting up to leave he saw Barry fiddle with something in his hands. He didn't even have to look to see what it was. Barry had a tendency to fiddle with a bronze ring with a lightning insignia on it when he was anxious. Wally had asked him about it once and apparently it had belonged to his family. Barry's mom had given it to him before she died, she said it had once belonged to his father. Now, it was the only thing that Barry had to remember them by.

Wally frowned thoughtfully and left the room. Barry really had lost so much. He probably blamed himself for his own suffering. Len used to do the same thing, and it wasn't right. Wally hoped that him delivering this letter would give Barry at least a little peace of mind. If not, then Wally really wasn't sure what else he could do.

Sneaking out of Star Labs was easy enough. Everybody else was so focused on their own things that anybody he _did_ pass didn't even spare him a second glance. It was a little unnerving just how much everybody seemed to be in their own heads.

Wally left through the back door of Star Labs, glanced at the address that Barry had scrawled on the envelope, and went off. Making his way through the streets was slightly more difficult, what with the meta humans walking around, but Wally got the hang of it. Within a few minutes he realized that he didn't necessarily have to sneak around because the meta's weren't giving him any of their attention. It made sense though. In their eyes, he was just some kid walking down the street, absolutely no threat and not worth their time or effort. Their focus was solely on the rebellion, and why would anybody believe that a young teenager _was_ a part of the rebellion?

Wally made it to his destination without encountering any trouble. He double checked the address on the envelope to confirm that he was actually in the right place before knocking on the door. For a minute there was no answer and Wally would have thought that there was nobody home if it weren't for the fact that he could he somebody shuffling around inside. Someone was home, Wally knew there was, so he knocked on the door again and waited.

Finally the door was opened by somebody who was _definitely_ not Iris. Wally wasn't worried though, because he thought he recognized the older man. He had been with Iris that day in town. The middle aged man was tense when he opened the door, but he relaxed and looked shocked when he saw Wally there, which made sense. After all, it wasn't very often that a stranger, let alone a teenager, knocked on your door unexpectedly. Especially not on this side of town.

"Do you need something?" The man sounded cautious, but also sincere. It was as though he was wary of strangers, as everybody should be, but he also was willing to help a person who needed it. Wally decided that he liked this man.

"I have a letter here for Iris." Wally held it up. "My friend told me to give it to her."

"Your friend?" The man's eyes darkened slightly in suspicion.

"Yeah, from Star Labs." Wally said. Maybe it was a little risky to say that, because everybody knew that Star Labs was the main base for the Resistance, and some people wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Still, in general people were much more willing to trust a stranger who was likely with the Resistance. The people may not openly join them, but for the most part they did support them.

The man's brow furrowed slightly in concern and confusion. "I'm Iris' father. I'll take the letter." Wally only hesitated slightly before giving the letter to the man. Barry may have told him to give it to Iris, but he really didn't want to be here for any longer than he had to. Wally wanted to get back to Star Labs as soon as possible.

Almost as if the man had read his thoughts he grabbed Wally gently but firmly by the arm. "Be careful out there, son." The man said. "Stay away from the fight." He actually sounded genuinely concerned for Wally's safety. The boy appreciated his concern, but he couldn't take it to heart. He had his own family to worry about.

Wally pulled out of the man's grip and ran off. He had walked on his way there because he wanted to make sure to get the address right and not draw attention to himself. Right now though Wally's goal was just to get back to Star Labs as soon as possible.

Still, Wally wasn't reckless enough to go dashing out through the middle of the city. That was like a plea for attention. Instead he stuck to the alleyways and less used paths to get back to Star Labs. It was a longer route, but because he was running it Wally still made it back in a shorter amount of time than it had taken him to get to Iris' house in the first place.

Wally entered back into Star Labs the same way he had left and he couldn't immediately tell that something was wrong. The air felt tense and things were way too quiet. Even though he was tired and slightly out of breath Wally ran to the main room where he found everybody gathered, and just by looking at their faces he could tell that something was up, but they didn't know what.

"Did something happen?" Wally asked. He approached the main computer, which everybody was gathered in front of, and peered over their shoulders. They seemed to be looking at the security cameras.

"Someone's coming." Cisco tapped away at the keys to enlarge one camera's feed, and than another's. "We don't know what they want."

Wally realized why everybody seemed so nervous. "Is it a meta-human?"

"We don't think so." Hartley shoved Cisco out of the way and took over. He focused on a different camera which showed a man in the distance, coming their way. Wally frowned and squinted at the screen. The man was just barely too far to properly tell, but he thought that his shape seemed wrong.

"Is he carrying something on his back?" Wally asked. Cisco and Hartley looked at each other and then back to the screen.

"It's possible." Hartley admitted, though he didn't sound sure. "We need a closer look." Hartley pressed a few keys and the camera began to zoom in on the man. The quality got worse the closer in they zoomed (Wally found it kind of weird that with all the high tech they had at Star Labs they had a crappy video security system), but Wally thought he could distinguish the shape of another person draped over the man's shoulders.

"I think he's carrying somebody." Wally leaned in closer. His eyes widened when he saw the very distinct color of yellow that the second person's jacket was. Wally had only ever seen one person where a leather jacket of that color. "Guys, I think it's Axel." It was just a guess, but it was more than enough for Hartley. The second the words had left Wally's mouth Hartley was gone, probably to see for himself in person.

"Hartley, wait!" Cisco got to his feet. "We don't even know if-" But he was gone. Cisco groaned in annoyance. "I swear, that guy's gonna get himself killed. What if this dude's dangerous?"

"And what if he's not?" Wally asked. Really, Hartley had the right idea. There was no way of knowing who their guest (guests?) was until he was either right on top of them or they went out to see for themselves. Wally wasn't really in a very patient mood, so he was all for checking out the situation himself. Even though he could hear the others protesting he also heard them follow right behind him, which meant that they were as curious as he and Hartley were.

Hartley was already outside when Wally and the others got out there. They could see the man was even closer now, but it looked like he was moving kind of slowly, as if he was burdened with extra weight. Wally watched as Hartley slipped on his sonic gloves, just in case, and approached the man cautiously.

"Who are you?" Hartley called out, with just the slightest edge of a threat in his voice. Wally wished it wasn't already dark outside, because then they would probably already know who they were dealing with, or at least have a general idea.

"I'm a friend." Wally frowned when he heard the voice. It sounded familiar to him. The man was close enough now that he was lit up by the lights of Star Labs, and Wally could swear that he recognized him. He didn't think about it too much though because he also recognized the person that he was carrying on his back.

"Axel!" Hartley lowered his gloved hands and ran forward. The dark skinned man who was carrying Axel lowered him so that Hartley could grab him. It bothered Wally how pale Axel looked, and that he was unconscious, if not worse. Whatever the case, they needed to get him inside so that Shawna could look over him.

Hartley took Axel inside. Wally would have gone with him, but he wanted to stay out here. Something about this man's presence bugged him. How had he found Axel when Barry, Hartley and Mick had left him in the middle of a battle zone. And how had he known to bring Axel to Star Labs? Something was going on here.

"Who are you?" Cisco repeated Hartley's question from before.

"I'm here to help." Was all the man said. Everybody else seemed wary still, but not overly so. It looked like they were considering accepting his offer, because they didn't actually need all the help that they could get. Wally narrowed his eyes. Something didn't seem right. He could swear that he recognized the man. All of a sudden it came to him.

"Don't trust him." Wally said sharply before anybody could decide to do anything. "I know this man. He's Detective Joe West with the CCPD." Wally remembered seeing him on that day that they had first seen Iris.

"A cop, huh?" In a second Mick had taken out his flame thrower gun that he had blackmailed Cisco into making for him a few years back. He had his weapon trained on Detective West, who froze. Even if he didn't know what the weapon was, he was smart enough to know that he didn't want to find out. "Inside. Now."

Detective West glared at all of them. "You kids think you're doing what's right? You're going to cause a war in this city. Innocent people will die."

"Innocent people already have." Barry said quietly. Wally knew that he was thinking about Len, as well as all of the civilians he must have seen get caught up in the fight. "But we didn't start this battle."

"But we will finish it." Wally said. They had to. This was _their_ city, and these were _their_ people getting hurt. Maybe them rebelling against Zoom would get innocent people hurt, maybe Detective West was right about that, but it was still necessary. Things weren't okay as they were, and unless they stood up for what was right things probably wouldn't get better any time soon.

Detective West was a Central City cop. He couldn't understand, but they _had_ to fight. It was the only way to make things right.

* * *

 **A/N: I feel like I'm squeezing a lot into these chapters, and yet not enough. Is that weird? Honestly, I'm not sure. These next few chapters may move a bit slower than previous ones, because a lot of stuff is going to happen in such a short period of time in this story, it** ** _has_** **to move slowly. So, uh, yeah, I'll see you next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I know it's been awhile since I've written anything for this story, but I had other stuff that I felt like writing. I would have written this a little earlier, but I was having a hard time motivating myself to write** _ **anything**_ **, so I just wrote stuff that came easily to me to get back into the groove of things, so now I can do this.**

* * *

 _Iris._

 _I know we don't know each other that much. We haven't known each other for very long, but I still feel like I know you, and I know that you felt the same way about me. I was looking forward to the chance of getting to know you better, but I don't think I can._

 _I'm part of the Resistance against Zoom. That man is a tyrant and a villain, and he needs to be stopped, and that's exactly what me and my friends are working on doing. The thing is, what I'm doing is very dangerous. One of my close friends is already gone (Len, you kinda_ _knew him) and it would be naive of me to think that the same thing couldn't happen to any of us._

 _In case something does happen to me, and I think it will, I just thought that I should warn you first. I remember you telling me that you've always felt alone and friendless because you were always moving around. Believe me, I would want nothing more than to be your friend, even from a distance, because I know that you're leaving again soon. But if something happens to me and I can't contact you...well, at least you know why._

 _You're a good person, Iris. Even if I've only known you for a little bit I still can recognize that much. You could probably be the type of person who has a thousand really close friends if you just let yourself try to open up to people._

 _My mom used to teach me to find love and purpose in my life, and now I'm giving the same advice to you. You deserve to be happy. I just wish I could be around to see it._

 _Please, Iris, pray for me...for all of us._

 _~Barry._

Henry read the letter about a dozen times, and he just couldn't put it down. He had so many conflicted feelings about it. Henry would be lying if he claimed that he didn't feel a little uneasy about Iris having befriended some young man who just happened to be part of The Resistance. It wasn't that he had a problem with them, he actually admired their bravery in standing up against Zoom, he just thought they had a suicidal way of going about it.

And apparently Iris' friend recognized this too.

Henry frowned as he read through the letter again. It seemed like Barry really didn't think he was going to be getting out of this alive, and yet he was still sincerely worried about Iris and her feelings. Barry was obviously a kind-hearted person, Henry could tell that much just by reading the letter. As much as he didn't agree with the methods that The Resistance used, Henry felt the need to help them.

Even if he wasn't a practiced doctor, Henry still considered it his duty to help out the people that he could. And he had always had a soft spot for children, and yes, from what he had heard the majority of the people in The Resistance were, in fact, children. Maybe not in the legal sense, but Henry wouldn't be surprised if many of them were about Iris' age, or possibly younger, if that young teenager who had delivered the note to Henry in the first place was anything to go by.

These children had strong lives in front of them, and they were all about to throw it away because they didn't think that things were fair. Henry partially admired their bravery, and marveled at their stubborn stupidity. How he felt about them though didn't change the fact that Henry now felt the familiar intense desire to do what he could to keep them all alive.

"Dad, what are you looking at?" Iris asked as she came into the room and found Henry reading the letter with a distressed look on his face.

"I'll tell you later." Henry said as he folded up the letter and put it in his pocket. He knew he would have to tell Iris about this at some point, but not yet. The last thing he wanted was for her to run out into the streets to join in The Resistance just because she had a friend or two out there...and she _would_ do something like that. "Iris, I need you to promise me that you'll stay inside tonight."

"What?" Iris was taken aback by the request. They both knew that Henry prefered it when she was in the house, but he rarely came out and said it. "Dad, what's-"

"Please, Iris." Henry said forcefully, because he _needed_ her to listen, just this once. "I have to go. There's somebody who needs my help. So please, just stay inside. I won't be able to focus on them if I'm worrying about you."

Iris' furrowed her eyebrows. She hated being told what to do, but she really was a kindhearted person. If somebody really needed her dad's help than she would do as she was told and not distract him. "Okay, dad, I promise."

Henry pulled Iris close and just held her for a minute. "I love you, baby girl." Henry kissed her forehead. "I'll come back as soon as I can."

"Good luck, dad." Iris said as Henry began to leave. "And be careful."

Henry _was_ careful on his way to S.T.A.R. Labs. The streets in this city were always dangerous to be wandering around on at night, but especially tonight. Everywhere he went Henry saw who he was sure was theives and Zoom's meta-humans. People who took advantage of the dark and air of fear.

Fortunately though Henry wasn't noticed by anybody. With all the years experience he had of running away from the law Henry had gotten really good at keeping out of sight while moving quickly at the same time.

Henry wasn't all that familiar with the layout of Central City, even though he had been living there for awhile he had never bothered going out and familiarizing himself with the streets. Still, it didn't take him all that long to find S.T.A.R. Labs. It was practically a city landmark, especially now that it was the headquarters for The Resistance. Finding S.T.A.R. Labs had been easy enough, but actually getting there had proven to be a bit of a challenge.

The closer Henry got to S.T.A.R. Labs the more meta-humans he had to avoid. Nobody was using their powers or causing trouble, but the air was tense and Henry knew that it was just a matter of time before they struck.

Henry was able to sneak past the metas and get into S.T.A.R. Labs, but he let his guard down after that. The thought had never occurred to him that The Resistance would have no reason to trust him. Especially since, to Henry's knowledge, none of them actually knew who he was, except possibly that boy who had brought the letter to him, but Henry wasn't sure whether he counted or not.

Henry had been able to enter S.T.A.R. Labs just fine, but mere seconds after getting in he was blown back by some strong force that knocked him off his feet and left him feeling dazed. Henry winced and looked towards where the attack had come from and found a young man glaring darkly at him. He was wearing a pair of strange looking gloves which he was aiming at him threateningly, which made Henry think that they weren't just there to keep the young man's hands warm.

"What are you doing here?" The young man asked in a warning tone.

Henry pulled himself up to his feet and held his hands up to show that he meant no harm. "I'm only here to help." That just caused the young man's scowl to deepen.

"Yeah, right." The young man said in disbelief. He had one of his gloves aimed directly at Henry and was probably about to do whatever it was that he had done before again when another young man came into the hallway.

"Hartley, what's going on out...oh." The newcomer looked surprised to see Henry as well as cautious. He didn't seem as angry as his friend was though. "Who're you?"

"A volunteer." Henry said. Neither young man looked like they believed him, but the one that wasn't Hartley certainly looked more optimistic and open about the idea.

"Well, we _could_ use some extra help." The kinder looking young man said. "But how can we know if we can trust you."

"We can't." Hartley snapped as he glared at his friend. "Cisco, even you can't be stupid enough to trust anybody who claims to be an ally. Remember Detective West?"

Henry felt his blood run cold. "Detective _Joe_ West?" Why couldn't he get away from that man? Both Hartley and Cisco looked at him cautiously.

"You know Detective West?" Cisco asked.

"Of course he does." Hartley scoffed. "They're probably working together." Hartley glared at Henry, and he knew that he was in trouble. These young men were scared and cautious, and he didn't have any way to prove to them that he could be trusted.

"Let me talk to the others." Henry said. Maybe there was somebody here who would believe him.

Hartley and Cisco looked at each other. "Gladly." Hartley said. Cisco gestured for Henry to follow him. Hartley took the rear, and never once stopped aiming his strange gloves at him. The three of them entered a large room with a lot of computers and technology. There were also a number of people there, but Harry was alarmed to see that half of them looked to be less than ten years older than Iris. They were practically _children_ , and they were fighting a losing battle.

An older man who seemed to be the one in charge stepped forward. He didn't seem as angry as Hartley, but he also wasn't as optimistic as Cisco. "Who are you?"

Henry opened his mouth to answer but another voice cut in before he could even begin. "Don't worry." A young teenager stepped forward and smiled. The same boy who had brought the letter for Iris. "I know this man."

The others didn't look entirely convinced, but at least they no longer seemed nearly as concerned as before. "If you're not an enemy, than who are you?" The man in charge asked.

"My name is Henry Allen." He gave his real name as a show of good faith. "I've come to help. My daughter, Iris, is friends with someone here."

Yet another young man gasped, and Henry felt his heart pang when he saw him. This young stranger just looked so much like his Nora. "You're Iris' dad?"

"Yes." Henry looked at this young man. "I take it that you are Barry? I apologize, but I read the note you wrote for my daughter. You must know, these are dangerous times, and she doesn't exactly know a lot of people.

"No, I get it." Barry said with a slight grin. "So, you're here to help?"

"Yes." Henry said, even though he had already told them that that was what he was doing there. "I'm afraid I won't be much help as a fighter though." And he wasn't much of a scientist either.

"So what do you think you'll be able to contribute?" A scowling man who, for some reason, had a quiver of arrows strapped over his shoulder.

"Doc's a doctor." A rough looking man who looked like he was in his mid to late twenties said. Henry frowned slightly at the term. The only people that really ever called him 'Doc' was Leo and his friends. Henry realized that this man must've been one of them. He wouldn't have ever guessed it. Now that he knew though, Henry knew exactly who it was.

"Michael, is that you?" Henry smiled ever so slightly. He could hardly believe that this man before him was the same insecure fifteen year old who dragged Leo to his clinic a couple of times every week, and who got treated for self-inflicted burns at least half of those times.

"Wait," Cisco looked like he was trying very hard to keep himself from laughing. "Michael?"

"Mick." Michael...Mick, corrected. He hit Cisco over the top of the head. It didn't look like something that would hurt all that much, but the way that Cisco winced and rubbed at his head showed that it hurt quite a bit more than expected.

"Dick." Cisco muttered.

"Idiot." Mick retorted, which somehow sounded more offensive than what Cisco had said had.

The scowling man with the arrows frowned at Henry. "You're really a doctor?" Henry nodded. He may be a little out of practice, but he still considered himself a decent doctor. "Then if you really want to help, I've got a couple of good men who got injured by the meta's. And no offense to Shawna or Caitlin, but they need some real help, not a couple of young girls playing medic."

"I'll do what I can to help." Henry said honestly, though he couldn't make any promises. He hadn't ever worked on the effects of meta-humans, and he wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The young teenager, who introduced himself as Wally, volunteered to bring Henry to the area they had set aside as a sick bay of sorts. Henry wasn't all that surprised to see that Hartley and Barry were following behind them, though Mick was a bit of a shocker.

Henry's concerns about not being able to help all but vanished when he got a look at the patients. The majority of them just seemed to have regular cuts or the odd gunshot wound. They weren't superficial injuries by any means, but at least they were ones that Henry knew how to handle. He could even deal with the third degree burns and frostbite.

The only one who he had no idea what to do for was a young man who seemed to be asleep, but not in a natural way. "What's wrong with him?" Henry asked.

"We don't know." Hartley said in a low voice that was filled with so much frustration and pain it almost hurt to hear. "We don't know what meta even got Axel in the first place, and we don't know how to fix it."

"But we have an idea." A young woman with calculated eyes said. "From what we can tell it seems almost like he's in a coma."

"Which, strangely enough, doesn't make me feel better." Hartley growled. Wally put a hand on Hartley's arm, but drew it back when he flinched ever so slightly.

"Axel's fine, Hart." Wally said. "He's basically just sleeping. He'll wake up soon." Hartley scoffed in disbelief, but he didn't say anything else. He just sat down on a chair next to Axel and glared at anybody who so much as looked their way. That actually suited Henry just fine, as he had other patients to see to. He began with a tired looking young woman who had a terrible cut that seemed to be getting infected.

"You're all exceptionally lucky." Henry commented as he worked. Some of these injuries had been just an inch or two away from being fatal.

"Yeah, maybe _those_ guys are." Mick muttered bitterly from the corner that he had been standing in this whole time. Hartley, Wally, Barry and the darker skinned young woman who had previously been helping out all frowned at his words. Barry seemed especially devastated. Sadly, Henry had a fairly good idea what was bothering all of them. He remembered Barry's letter mentioning something about how a friend of his, Len, had been killed.

Len...wait a second. Henry realized with a start that if the kid he had known by Michael was actually named Mick, then it wouldn't so impossible to think that Leo also hadn't gone by his actual name, but by one that was similar enough, and yet still distinct from his own.

"So, Leo's…" Henry trailed off, but they understood what he was saying.

"Yeah." Mick scowled, but Henry could see the pain in his eyes.

"It's my fault." Barry muttered. Both Hartley and Mick, who didn't strike Henry as the type of people to sugar coat the truth, immediately disagreed and called him an idiot for even thinking like that, but Barry wasn't hearing it. The young man just shook his head and left the room without looking back. Henry stared after him and felt like he should say something.

"You can talk to him, if you think it'll help." Wally suggested. "He won't listen to any of us." Henry wasn't exactly sure why Barry would listen to a stranger over his friends, but he still wanted to give it a try...except he was kinda in the middle of doing something.

The darker skinned young woman gently pushed Henry out of the way and took over what he had been doing. "Go. I got this." She sounded confident enough, and Henry knew that she had been watching his actions closely since he had started. The young woman may not be a doctor, but she had the makings and interest of one.

"Thank you, ms.-" Henry trailed off when he realized he didn't actually know the girl's name. She smiled ever so slightly.

"Shawna." She said. "Now go see if you can talk that idiot out of his funk." Apparently all of Leo...Len's old friends were under the impression that 'idiot' was a term of endearment.

"Shawna." Henry nodded gratefully at her. He wasn't exactly sure what he would say to Barry, but he really felt like the boy shouldn't be on his own.

Henry easily found Barry. The young man was standing in the hallway that was just right around the corner of the sick bay. He approached Barry slowly and tried to think of what to say.

"Were you and Len close?" Henry finally asked, realizing too late that the question may be a little insensitive. Barry didn't seem bothered by it though.

"I felt like we were." Barry said in a quiet voice. "I mean, if we weren't than Len wouldn't have ever…" Barry trailed off and took in a deep, shuddering breath.

"...What happened to him?" Henry asked. He swore, if it had anything to do with Len's father…

"A meta-human." Barry sighed and ran a finger through his hair. "It shouldn't have happened. It _wouldn't_ have happened if it weren't for me. H-He pushed me out of the way. Len saved me, and now he's gone, and it's all my fault."

"It is _not_ your fault." Henry put a gentle but firm hand on Barry's shoulders. "You can't dwell so much on the 'what-ifs' and 'would-have-beens'. Believe me, it will drag you down until you feel like you're nothing." That was one thing that Henry knew more than anything else. "You're only hurting yourself with thoughts like that, and if you and Len really were close, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want that for you."

"...No, I guess not." Barry admitted, but he still sounded extremely depressed. Barry had started to fiddle with something small. The way that he did it Henry could tell that it was a habit for him. His movements seemed practiced, almost like he did it so often that it was just second nature to him. Barry's hands were shaking though, and eventually it became so bad that the small object fell right through his fingers.

Barry flinched slightly at small clang the object made when it hit the floor. Henry quickly bent down to pick it up for him and he saw that it was a ring. A rather unique looking bronze ring with a lightning bolt insignia on it. Henry felt his breath catch when he saw it, because he had only ever seen one ring like this before.

"Where did you get this?" Henry asked in a small voice. Barry looked confused by the question.

"My mom gave it to me when I was a kid." Barry answered. He held out his hand and Henry carefully handed the ring over. Barry looked at it closely. "I think she said that my dad gave it to her before he left. Why?"

"I just...used to have a ring just like it." Henry said.

"Oh." Barry nodded and didn't think twice about it. He probably thought this was all just a happy coincidence, but Henry knew it couldn't be. He _knew_ this ring, and he knew that it had to be his. His great-grandfather, the original owner of the ring, had had it custom made for a wedding present. So it couldn't be a different ring of the same design, and Henry recognized this ring and all of its dents and decolorization well enough to know that it wasn't just a ring of a similar make.

This _was_ Henry's ring. The ring he had given to Nora. And now this young man who shared the same age _and_ name as Henry's son had his ring and claimed that it had been given to him by his mother.

This just seemed like too many coincidences for it to be a coincidence.

But if this was true, than Barry was…

"Barry!" An urgent voice cried out. Henry and Barry both turned to see Cisco running towards them, and he looked very worried about something.

"We've got a problem." Cisco said. "A major problem."

Barry frowned and went to follow Cisco. Henry hesitated for just a moment before following the boys. His thoughts were over-run with all this new information, but he tried to set them aside so he could focus. He had come here to provide any help that he could, and if something was wrong than Henry wanted to help.

This new information about Barry would have to wait until later, at a time when they could afford to think about it.


End file.
